Spirit Bound
by Charlotte -LOVE
Summary: Rose breaks her promise to Lissa and goes to find Doru on her own. While she travels, with various sidekicks, Princess Lissa has to deal with being left guardianless. Of course, being the Queen's favourite, things have already been planned. Please R&R!
1. Running Away

_Chapter 1_

_Running Away_

There was always something humiliating about betrayal. When you do it to a stranger, it's bad enough, but a friend? A sister? It's a low blow.

Alberta knows that I left without Lissa, but she's the only one I told. Lissa's expecting to leave with me in four days. Together. As mean as this seems – I can't let her come with me. I love her, and I don't want to see her hurt. Dragging her along won't do anyone any good, it would only hurt her – and me – and anyone close to her, like Mia or Adrian. Those were the thoughts that were bouncing around my head when I left this morning, and they still hadn't gone away.

My name is Rose Hathaway, and I'm a Dhampir with major issues. Numero uno on my mind? That would be my crazy, evil ex-lover, Dimitri Belikov, who – despite all efforts on my part – is still alive and chasing after me. He has promised to come and find me as soon as possible, and I take that threat very seriously.

Number two is Lissa's uncle, Prince Victor Dashkov. Of course, Mr Dashkov isn't really Lissa's uncle – the Moroi Royalty use family terms loosely with each other.

Lissa… Lissa was a whole other problem. Without me to guide her, she tended to get into a world of trouble – and with our one-way bond, there isn't much I can do to help. But bringing her along with me will not solve this problem. Usually, I would comfort myself with the knowledge that her boyfriend, Christian, and BFF, Adrian, would keep her in line, but with Christian still refusing to talk to her and Adrian being called away so frequently on courtly duties, there wasn't much comfort in that.

But I couldn't concentrate on her now, I would check up on her every day – that would be enough. Really, all I should focus on is: first, getting to Victor Dashkov. Second, forming a plan to get passed the dozens of guards he would have. And third, keeping tabs on the whereabouts of crazy exes.

I winced at an old memory that had risen unbidden in my mind. It was of Dimtri – _my_ Dimitri – the badass yet gentle Dhampir guardian and mentor that I had so easily fallen for. Those memories led to our final moments together, the images in my mind caused me to stop in the middle of the road I was walking along. The touches and kisses, the words and whispers, the final goodbyes…

No.

I blinked rapidly, getting rid of the tears pooling in my eyes, and started walking again. No. I will _not_ cry. I have shed enough tears over Dimitri without adding to them now.

Thankfully, the sun was high in the sky – so I had no fear of being attacked by Strigoi or being caught by Lissa.

You see, there are three types of vampires in the world. The Moroi – which is what Lissa is – are the normal vampires. They drink human blood, although they only need a tiny bit, not enough to kill a human.

Strigoi are not so courteous with humans. They kill any human they drink from. They're evil, twisted creatures that only use violence as the answer. Moroi are born. Strigoi are _made_. They can either be turned forcefully, or they can be turned willingly. Dimitri was one of the forcefully changed, but that doesn't stop him taking the Strigoi's violent tendencies.

And then there is me. A Dhampir. Half-human, half-Moroi. My species started with a few Moroi-human affairs, but now that has become a taboo. Dhampirs are sterile with each other, like mules. However we _can_ have children with the Moroi. You would think that Dhampir and Moroi children come out as three quarters Moroi and a quarter human, wouldn't you? Nope. They're standard half-human and half-Moroi. Because of this, we rely heavily on the Moroi to stay alive – that's quite hard when the only thing that Strigoi are interested in is killing Moroi. So, some Dhampirs become guardians: Dhampirs specially trained to protect the Moroi at all costs. That's what I was – before I dropped out of St Vladimir's Academy in my final year.

Rose Hathaway. A dropout guardian with a seriously messed up life. Yep, that's me in a nutshell. Oh, and I'm shadow kissed.

Moroi have magic. When they reach a certain age, usually around sixteen or seventeen, they specialise in one of them. Until a few years ago, there were only a few known ones: water, wind, fire and earth. However recent discoveries have led to a new element: spirit. Lissa is a spirit user, which means she can do amazing things, like heal people, make them do things they would never consider doing, bring them back from the dead. That's what happened to me. I was in a car with Lissa and it crashed. I should've died. I _did_ die. But Lissa brought me back using her magic. Since then, she and I have had a bond. I can feel what she is feeling and see through her eyes. It's a one-way bond, but it still makes us closer than sisters. It's a comfort to me that I can check up on her, but she had no such luck. She has no clue whether I'm in trouble or not, and she wouldn't be able to help me if I am.

I sighed and quickened my pace. There were two reasons for why I left Lissa at school. One, there was too much of a chance she would get hurt and two, I didn't want her to see me with Dimitri the Strigoi. If my crazy missions failed, I would end up being either dead or Strigoi. I don't want Lissa to join me in either of those. If I lived and stayed Dhampir, then I would spend the rest of my life begging for her forgiveness, and I was fine with that.

"Stop it, Rose," I told myself. "Concentrate on what's going on at the moment."

Easier said that done, seeing as nothing was going on. There was no interesting scenery to watch, it seemed to be composed of trees, bushes and fields. I had touched down in England one hour ago in a little airport close to London. The sun was shining down, but it still wasn't warming me. I was on my way to the capital, to find Dashkov – who was in prison. It had taken me only seven hours to reach the UK. My newly discovered father could do amazing things for me. He was also the one who knew where the prison I was looking for was.

The O2 arena, the third most popular music venue in the world, a capacity of twenty three thousand, three seating tiers and one vampire prison hidden underneath it. There was a trapdoor hidden in the standing area, wide enough to fit only one person at a time. Seven guardians stood underneath it at all times, ready to stop anyone trying their luck at getting out. Or in. Getting into the arena would be no problem – however getting through that door…

I groaned. This mission was crazy, I knew that when I started, but I was just starting to realise how impossible it was. The Moroi prison itself would be guarded by more Dhampirs than the Royal Court. But I had to see Dashkov - had to find his brother. His brother had the only cure for my broken and aching heart.

The only small problem with this, is that Victor Dashkov and I didn't see eye to eye. Well, that was a bit of an understatement. We hated each other. He had kidnapped Lissa, intending to make her use her powers to cure him. I stopped him, and got him sent to jail for life, effectively killing him. He had had Sandovsky's Syndrome – an incurable disease. Lissa, using spirit, could heal anything and she had managed to get the worst of the disease away before I got to them. But without Lissa's constant healing powers, it came back and he was going to dir. Because of me. Yeah, we weren't the best of friends.

I grimaced once more and start jogging, trying to warm myself up slightly. I was trying hard to reach London by sunset. Strigoi loved hunting in big cities and I didn't want to draw any unwelcome attention to myself. I didn't want to kill Dimitri again – so it would be best if word of my didn't spread around the Strigoi.

After an hour, I could make out the bright city lights on the horizon. Another hour passed and I could see the individual windows on the houses that I was soon passing. Just as the sun began to set, I arrived outside a mangy hotel. In my pocket, I had a purse stuffed with money – all of my savings from my short time at the Academy. In other words: not a lot.

The woman behind the counter stared at me when I entered, but quickly looked back down at the magazine in her hands. I approached her cautiously – looking for any potential threats. But I couldn't see anything and I wasn't feeling nauseous (a sign of Strigoi) so I kept going.

I stood in front of her, my elbows resting lightly on the dusty counter. She kept reading her magazine article.

I cleared my throat. "Can I have a room?" I hinted.

"For one?" The receptionist found her voice at last.

"No, for me and the rest of my invisible party."

She blinked at me slowly. "So…how many is that?"

I sighed. Sarcasm and humans didn't mix well. "Just a room for me, please."

The woman blinked slowly again and started typing something on the ancient computer in front of her.

"Name?"

I froze for a minute, trying to remember my false identity. "Um…Cote."

"Cote what?"

"Cote isn't my _first_ name, it's my surname," I said scathingly. What kind of person though Cote was a first name? She just stared, waiting. "Lauren Cote," I told her.

She tapped away on the keyboard again, pausing only to stick a wad of chewing gum in her mouth, which she then chewed unattractively.

"Age?"

I didn't have to think this time. "Eighteen."

More tapping. I drummed my fingers on the desk in time with her typing.

"How long are you planning to stay"

I had to think again. How long was I planning to stay in London? Hopefully, as short a time as possible – but hope rarely worked for me. Plus, I had no idea how long it would take to break into a prison.

"Er…I'm not sure. About a month?"

"A month?" she clarified.

"Yes, about a month."

"A month?"

"Yes. A month."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes! I want to stay here for a month!"

"Okay," she said calmly as if nothing had just happened. More tapping. What did she even need to type in that was that long. "So you want to pay today? Or at the end?"

"The end."

She finally looked at me and said, "Okay, that will be all. I'll show you to your room."

"Thanks," I replied. I shifted my backpack on my back and heard the silver stakes _click_ as they hit one another. The woman looked curiously at my bag, but shrugged it off. Grabbing a singly key off the rack behind her.

I followed her to a staircase concealed behind the counter. Just before she started ascending the stairs, I glanced at her computer screen to see what she had been typing. The only thing on her screen was a game of solitaire. What the hell? You don't even use the keyboard to play solitaire!

At the top of the stairs, there was one small corridor with six doors. She shoved the key roughly into the first one and kicked it open. I peeked in, longing to see something nice and cosy. Instead, I was greeted with a small, practical room. It had a bed pushed up against the far wall with a bedside table next to it. There was another floor on the left wall, and a cupboard on the right. Small, practical, and in no way 'home'.

"Is this okay?" the woman asked as she wrestled the key out of the lock and handed it to me.

"Yeah, this is great. Thanks." I wondered whether she would get the subtle hint and leave. She did.

I clambered over to the bed, dumping my rucksack on the floor next to it. I couldn't be bothered to unpack, I would do it later. The walk had been tiring and I hadn't had a rest since four hours ago, when the plane landed. I flopped onto my back – noticing how hard and lumpy the mattress was – and rolled onto my side, curling into a tight ball. I stayed there for a long time, waiting for Lissa to wake up.


	2. Inside Her Head

Chapter Two

_Inside Her Head_

I didn't have to wait long. About two hours after night fell, a wave of strong emotions burst through the bond. Lissa was pissed, really pissed. Mixed in with the anger was fear, betrayal and pain. I winced at the powerful emotion, but concentrated hard on them, letting them engulf me and take me away from my body. It was so easy to slip into her head now.

Lissa was standing in an office, surrounded by familiar faces. Adrian was leaning against a wall, my Mom standing opposite him – her arms crossed. Christian was standing next to Lissa, and although they weren't touching, I could feel a faint pleasure at being near him again. Lissa had missed him greatly. A few of my instructors were there as well. Standing behind the desk, leaning heavily on it, was one of my favourite guardians, Alberta.

"What do you mean, Rose has _gone_?" Lissa snarled.

Alberta sighed. "She's not here. She left during the day while you were all asleep."

"And nobody _stopped_ her?" Lissa was ready to kill me. Hurt pulsed through our bond, all of it directed at me. I could feel her disbelief that I had left her behind _again_, but without even saying goodbye. There was a fierce hope in her that this was a joke, but she knew it wasn't.

"She's not out responsibility, Princess." I recognised Stan, one of my least favourite instructors, and now one of Lissa's. "Rose is a drop-out, and because that, she makes her own choices and does abide to our rules. It's not like she did much of that when she _was_ a student here."

"But…But…We need her here! _I_ need her here! She was going to be my guardian in a few weeks! Who am I going to have now? There's no one!" It was a lame excuse, and Lissa knew it, but she was still trying to find any reason for them to come and look for me.

"The Queen has back-up guardians for you, Princess," Stan said in a tight voice. "In fact, one has already been assigned."

"I don't want a replacement Rose." Her voice was dangerously quiet. "I want Rose."

Inside her head, I could feel her pain. She wanted to know why I had left her – again – why I had broken our promise.

"I'm sorry, Lissa," Alberta said. "But we aren't going after Rose. She's chosen her own path, and we have to let her follow it. Besides, we simply _don't_ have the resources to send guardians after her."

"Then let _me_ go after her," Lissa begged.

"No, Princess. While you are at this school, you are under our rules. You will _not_ go after Rose." There was a finality in Alberta's voice that made it hard to protest. But Lissa wouldn't give in – she wouldn't let me disappear again because the adults wouldn't do anything.

But as she opened her mouth to protest, Christian's hand wrapped around hers and his lips were at her ear.

"Lissa, leave it. You aren't going to get anywhere."

The argument died in her mouth and she sagged against him in defeat. Alberta smiled sadly at her.

"I am so sorry, Lissa, I know how close you two are. And I know that Rose will come back for you – she wouldn't disappear forever without saying goodbye."

_But she did, _Lissa thought. _Why did you, Rose? Why?_ She allowed herself to be steered out of the room by Christian, his arms were wrapped tightly around her waist and his lips by her ear, murmuring comforts and condolences. Adrian and my mother stayed inside, probably checking things with Alberta and the other guardians.

Lissa stumbled along next to him down a few corridors before stopping to face him. She hadn't realised she was crying until he reached up to wipe them away with his thumbs.

"Oh god, Lissa, I'm so sorry," he said as he pulled her into a tight hug. "I'm so sorry."

"No, _I'm _sorry. I was such a fool with Avery. You had every right to be angry with me."

"Yeah, but not for so long. And I didn't even notice that Avery was doing anything to you, I blamed it all on you. Even when Rose pointed it out…" he trailed off when he mentioned my name. The painful emotions rose again in Lissa.

"Why did she leave me, Christian? She promised that she would take me with her."

Christian leaned in towards her, engulfing her in his scent. Lissa's mind stopped functioning properly, and all she could think about was how much she had missed him.

"You know Rose, her missions are usually crazy and dangerous. She wouldn't want to put you into anything where you might get hurt."

"But _she_ could gethurt. She could die for all I know! And she never even said goodbye." Tears cascaded down Lissa's cheeks again, and Christian pulled her into a kiss, wiping the tears away with his thumbs.

They were kissing passionately, and I could feel the love that was overwhelming Lissa. I considered going back to my body in London, I really hated their make out sessions. But they pulled away quickly enough for me to bare it.

"Listen to me, Lissa," Christian said. "Rose will part oceans and move mountains for you. She will not let a little thing like death stop her from coming back. Rose wouldn't do that."

It was almost humbling, hearing somebody like Christian saying that – it was definitely uncomfortable for me. But it was good that he did say it, Lissa found the truth comforting, especially because she knew that I would come back to her. She always had confidence in me.

"I still wish she hadn't left," Lissa sighed.

Christian shrugged. "She'll check in with you every day, she'll come back if you get into any trouble."

I pulled myself backwards – out of her mind. I was sitting on the edge of my bed, my back straight and my hands clutching the bed covers. With a sigh, I slumped backwards onto the bed and reached up to wipe the drool from the side of my mouth. Charming, I've started drooling when I go into Lissa's head. That's a good reason to make sure the door is locked whenever I try it.

At least Lissa was in good hands now. Christian was the really annoying, overly-protective type with an ability to throw fire around – he would keep her safe. And Adrian would keep the demons out of her head. She would be looked after. Unlike me.

I blinked and shook my head hard. Self-pity wasn't like me. Although quite a few of my actions were because of myself – and the rest, for Lissa – I barely had time to stop and think about my situation.

In my backpack there was a collection of maps I had "borrowed" from the Academy's library. They showed London in great detail, and had all the vampire hangouts and passages on them. All I was interested in was the passages. My plan involved not being noticed by _anyone_ who might know me or recognise me. This meant that all popular tunnels were ruled out. Also, I had to avoid the roads with the Moroi clubs and make sure that I stayed well away from Bloodwhore dens. So that left: the human roads, or the deserted, collapsed tunnels.

I was four miles away from the O2 arena. If I was dodging all possible threats, then it would take about an hour. If I went tomorrow, then I would be able to work out the best way to get in. The next day – I would find my way in, get what I came here for, and be back in Montana before the weeks end. The receptionist would be happy that my room wouldn't need to be cleaned for a whole month. But for now, I had nothing to do but sleep.


	3. The Alchemists of Old London Town

_Chapter Three_

_The Alchemists of Old London Town_

I cursed as I watched the sun steadily disappearing below the city skyline. I hadn't meant to be out this late – but it was hardly my fault. I went out scouting in the morning, and returned to my room for a quick nap as I had had a really terrible night. I never meant to fall asleep for five hours!

But I wanted to get of London quickly, not in a month or two, so I had to get going. Which all led to me walking along a busy pavement in rush hour. My head was bowed with the hood of my jacket pulled over my hair. I was braving busy London, but I wasn't going to tempt fate.

I was looking for a small alley that ended in a brick wall. According to my maps, there was an abandoned tunnel entrance in that alley – although I had been finding out all day that my maps were sadly out of date.

Just as I was about to give up hope, I noticed a small gap between two shops. I peered down between the buildings, and, sure enough, there was a brick wall at the end. All of the humans were too wrapped up in their own lives to care what I was doing, so I slipped down the passage unnoticed. The wall was about a foot taller than me, and expanded the width of the alley. No way to get passed it. Unless you accidentally kicked a crumbling brick on the second row. Then, as if by magic, you find yourself transported down, into a dark, damp tunnel with no light illuminating the way.

At least that is what I _thought_ would happen. Sure enough, when I pressed the brick with my toe, a trapdoor magically appeared, but the tunnel was definitely _not_ damp or dark. In fact, it was light and full of vampires. Moroi and Dhampirs stood in groups, chatting and laughing. It was like an underground club. I turned to go before I could be recognised, but the ladder had disappeared – sunk back into the wall or wherever it came from.

A drunk Dhampir came up to me and slung an arm around my shoulder, slurring words in my ear. I shrugged him off and walked away from the useless entrance. There _had_ to be a way to get out of this damned tunnel.

Next time, I was bringing maps that were right.

Keeping my head down, I barged through the crowds of intoxicated vampires – longing to get out of the noise and into the quiet. Whenever somebody refused to move, I gave them a little shove to remind them of their manners. All I had wanted was to observe a public arena, that was it. I wasn't planning to kill anyone or harm anyone tonight – so why was I being followed misfortune. Probably punishing me for some bad deed I did years ago. Karma's a real bitch.

The tunnel was long, and throbbing with activity. I was surprised that the humans couldn't hear it above, but Moroi were good at hiding themselves. A drink was crammed into my hand and the person walked away before I could hand it back to them. It was a sickly green colour and I dropped it before the smell made me vomit.

At the end of the noisy passage, there was a small door set into a wall. I grasped the handle and stumbled through before anyone could try and force another drink upon me.

The first thing my brain registered was the breath of cool, night air that brushed my skin and my face. It was refreshing and dried the sweat that had pooled all over my skin.

The second was danger. Immediately, my muscles tensed as I was surrounded by a group of very threatening Dhampirs, a quiet growl rippled through my lips. And then I noticed several other small details. Their faces were all startled, as though I had scared them and they all flinched when I growled. They were all covered in grime and most of them looked heavily stoned. None of them looked like they would be particularly good in a fight, either. And then it clicked: they weren't Dhampirs, they were _humans_. Who appeared to be guarding a door to a vampire community.

"Rose?" A familiar voice asked.

I blinked, trying to make out the humans features in the dark. "_Sydney_?" I gasped.

"Oh my god, it _is_ you," she said. "I thought I was hallucinating."

"The feeling was mutual. What are you doing here? I thought Russia was your territory."

"We move about a lot," she told me, gesturing to the group of stoned humans around her.

"We?" I asked incredulously. "You mean, these people are…"

"Alchemists. Like me."

In our little mythical world, there were three vampires species. We stayed out of sight of humans, not interacting with them. But there were some that we did, but only because the offered us something that we couldn't get on our own, magic that we didn't understand.

Alchemists, as they are known, cover up for us. Every Dhampir is taught about them when he or she graduates. As I never graduated, I found out about them the hard way. Basically, we called them every time we got into a fight with a Strigoi and needed somebody to dispose of the bodies. The alchemists had all the potions and whatnot to be able to do this job efficiently and quickly. In return, we gave each of them some Moroi-traits, making them a little bit vampire.

Sydney and I had meant in Siberia, while I was trying to find Dimitri. We had come to rely on each other in a way. We weren't really friends, but I knew that she would help me if I got into a sticky situation and vice versa. I thought that she stayed in Siberia, but apparently not.

"What are _you_ doing here?" she asked me. "Another Rose Hathaway secret mission?"

"Got it in one," I told her. "I was just trying to avoid the druggies in there." I jerked my thumb to the concealed door. "I didn't realise there were druggies out here as well. What were you guys doing?"

Sydney smiled slightly. "Guarding the druggies in there. You would be amazed at how much they pay for protection."

"But…what about the guardians?"

She laughed. "You haven't been here long, have you? The guardians aren't the same as they are in America, really. They take it a lot less seriously and take a lot more days off. All the Dhampirs in there couldn't care less about the safety of the Moroi – which is why we're here."

I wrinkled my nose in disgust and turned towards the closed door. That was _pathetic_. Guardians were trained to always be on the watch, to always protect the Moroi. They did _not_ slack off and let _humans_ do the work.

Sydney watched my face carefully. "I never thought that London would be your place – you're too wrapped up in a guardian's 'duty'."

"Hey! That's not fair. It would be okay if a few guardians were standing out here – but you must realise that humans shouldn't be guarding the Moroi in a city as big as London! Strigoi are everywhere in big cities, and you need to be twice as careful."

I grimaced as a trickle of drunken laughter filtered through the door. Sydney laughed and flung an arm around my shoulders, leading me away from the offensive tunnel.

"Rose, you have no idea how things work in London. There are barely any Strigoi around here, it would be too dangerous for them. And alchemists do have their advantages. Don't worry about it – we can keep your precious Moroi safe."

I lowered my voice and asked, "Too dangerous for Strigoi? Why would that be?"

Sydney kept her careless look, but I could feel as she tensed slightly. "Oh, I don't really know," she said lightly – falsely. "They just don't like it around here."

Even quieter I asked, "So it isn't because we're about half a mile away from a heavily guarded prison?"

She stopped and stared at me wide-eyed. "How do you know about that? No one knows where your prison is."

"Sydney." The was a note of urgency in my voice now. "I need to know more about that prison. I need to know how to get in. And I need you to help me."

The look she gave me just confirmed my fears: I was crazy to attempt it. Shock was on every feature, I swear even her ears were slightly red. Her mouth opened and closed like a goldfish's. She blinked at me several times.

"Oh my word, you're actually being serious. What do you mean, you need to know how to get in? Rose, that place is guarded more heavily than your queen or king or whatever. If you even touch the prison – you will be killed. Trust me, this mission is crazy. Give up."

"How come you know that much about the prison? If you can help me get in, Sydney, then _please_. If I can't, then I'm going to get myself killed anyway. This is my last option. There isn't anything else I can do after this."

Her eyes widened slightly, maybe my voice was as desperate as I felt. "What do you mean?"

"Somebody is coming after me – and if he catches me, I'm either dead or Strigoi. There won't be any other option. If I can get into that prison, I'll have another option, and that will be life."

I started walking again, Sydney followed me and spoke into my ear. "You will be killed this way as well."

"I might not." We turned a corner onto a street that was almost deserted – just a few human boys lolling around. "Can you get me in?"

"What makes you think that I can?" she asked.

I kept one eye on her, and one eye on the boys, who were looking at us with interest. "It's just a feeling. I think you've been there before."

She bit her lip and looked away from me, also focusing on the youths. "Yes, okay, I have. Our potions don't always help the Moroi. Some of them…I'm paid to get information out of the ones who don't talk."

"You are paid…to _torture_ Moroi?" I asked. I had never heard of this before, but I suppose that I wouldn't have.

"It's not like that!" Sydney exclaimed quickly. "Honestly, I don't hurt them at all – I just create an illusion of pain. And sometimes I just show them visions and pictures, things that they don't want to see." A memory of the fight we Avery flashed into my head. The Dimitri that I loved, in front of our house. It was one of my most painful memories, because I couldn't have it.

I looked at Sydney. "Showing them things? Like what they want most in the world?" She nodded, smiling because I understood. "That's the cruellest thing you could do to someone."

Her eyes widened and she looked away from me. "I'm sorry that you disagree with what I do, Rose, but I have to do it. I suppose I should get back to my guarding."

"Wait!" I cried, grabbing her arm and pulling her back. "I _beg_ you, Sydney, help me get in. I have to get in."

Indecision was clear in her eyes. She did want to help me, but our relationship meant that she felt obliged to. She sighed, her gaze roaming around the street, not focusing on anything. When she finally looked at me again, I was a nervous wreck.

"Okay," she said quietly. "But you have to tell me why you need to get into there. And you can't lie to me."

I glanced uneasily at the youths, who were slowly walking towards us. I would have _liked_ to beat the crap out of them – but it wouldn't help my stay-unnoticed policy.

"Fine," she sighed. "We'll go somewhere more private."

After a five minute walk, Sydney led me to a McDonalds. I raised my eyebrow at her. Did she mishear?

"Um... Sydney? Private? McDonalds?"

"You're hungry – I'm hungry, and McDonalds is always way too noisy for anybody to eavesdrop." She smiled and held the door open.

I felt like pointing out that her logic was flawed, but my traitorous stomach told me different. Her grin turned smug as I walked through the open door. Inside, there were crowds of party-goers and friends. It stank of deeply unhealthy food substances and my mouth started watering.

"Grab a table," Sydney ordered. "I'll get the food."

The chairs were neon green and red, and the table was right in the middle of the room. I assessed all of the escape routes while Sydney ordered for us – bringing me back a tray piled with my favourites. I gobbled it down while she picked at her fries in ladylike way. Screw manners, I was _hungry_.

"Speak," she commanded when I was finished.

I burped and wiped the grease off the corners of my mouth with my t-shirt sleeve. She wrinkled her nose, but knew not to say anything that would start me off.

And so I told her. I told her who I had been looking for in Siberia, I explained about Dimitri and what had happened. Why I had done it, what Abe had told me, about Victor Dashkov and Lissa, about leaving her behind. I told her everything.

Once I was done, she sat back, her eyes wide. "Wow, Rose…Just…Wow. You don't have it easy."

"Thanks for pointing it out – I hadn't realised," I said sarcastically. "Anyway, you'll still help me – right?"

"Yeah, I will. I'm not going back on my promise."

I sighed in relief and anticipation. I was going to get in! I was going to talk with Victor Dashkov! I would be able to do all of this without being killed!

I could save Dimitri.

"Thank you, Sydney."

She grinned, but I could see worry in her eyes. As happy as I was, this was still dangerous, and Sydney knew that. She also knew that the penalty for helping someone break into a prison was imprisonment itself, and according to her, imprisonment was not fun. So I was more than grateful that she was taking the risk for me, I was definitely going to have to make it up for her.

"Meet me here tomorrow at six in the morning. If you're late – I'm not waiting for you," she said as she pulled her coat back on.

"What if you're late?" I asked.

Sydney looked at me as if I was mentally retarded. "I won't be. If I'm not here then you're late."

And with that, she left. A breeze swished through the restaurant as she opened the door and let it swing shut again. I sighed and pulled out my map from my bag, tracing the route back with my finger.

I kept to the alleys this time, not daring the London nightlife again. The walk back took a long time, but eventually the rundown shack that was a hotel came into view. The front windows were on, as was the one next to mine. I blinked. I hadn't realised that I had any neighbours.

The receptionist wasn't at her desk when I entered, but then, she wasn't a very good receptionist. I felt sorry for the next person who tried to book a room with her. I flicked the light switch on in my room when I got there and checked the locks on the window. I could hear music playing in the room next to mine, but it was quiet so I didn't bother telling them to shut it up.

I flopped backwards onto my bed, pulling my hair out of it's tight ponytail as I went. I kicked off my shoes and yanked off my socks before letting my head fall back on the pillow. I was asleep within seconds.


	4. Ella Enchanted

_Chapter Four_

_Ella Enchanted_

Lissa and Christian were making up. And when I say making up, I mean making out. Oh great. The one thing I had enjoyed about Lissa and Christian not being together, was the fact that I wasn't woken up in the middle of the night to watch their make out sessions.

I was considering pulling out of her head, but I hadn't checked up on Lissa today, so I stayed. I could that my betrayal had really hurt her, as I could feel it even when Christian touched her. Usually, there was nothing but love when they kissed.

A sharp knock at the door made them jerk apart. Lissa looked at the door in alarm and jerked the zipper on her dress back up. I guessed it was suitably late enough in America that they didn't think they would be disturbed. But, as I had no idea what the time was, it was only a guess.

"Princess? Are you in?" a cultured voice asked from the other side of the door. Christian rolled off the bed and under it, breathing very shallowly.

"Yes, I am," Lissa called back. Checking that Christian was well hid, she unlocked the door. "Am I needed somewhere?"

The man was a Dhampir. One of the Queen's guardians. Lissa's heart fell and I could feel her distaste. Secretly, Lissa despised the Queen. Outwardly, Lissa was happy to be the Queen's favourite little Moroi.

"The Queen would like a word with you," he said.

"What? It's about three in the morning!" Lissa protested. She knew it wouldn't matter when it came to the Queen, but it helped to protest a little.

"She apologises for the hour, Princess, but her Majesty would prefer your visit not to be aired all around campus. After you."

Lissa hated being ordered to do stuff, but she had to comply. So, she shut the door behind her, leaving it unlocked so that Christian could escape while she was away. As she followed the guardian down the hall, I reflected on my excellent choice of staying in her head instead of pushing out instantly.

Queen Tatiana was visiting the Academy for a week, mainly checking up on Lissa as she was going to college close to the Royal Court. She was living in the Moroi quarters – the oldest and grandest building inside the Academy. Her Majesty lived in the Royals Room. Everyone school had one, they're built just in case the King or Queen decides to stop by.

Lissa's feelings were pumped through me like drugs. She was terrified about what the Queen wanted to say to her. If she didn't want people to know, it would be bad, or tremendously good. But the Queen did not deliver good news, she only delivered the bad news. In a condescending way. Lissa was on the verge of having a heart attack by the time the guardian knocked on the door.

"Enter," rang the Queen's imperious voice.

The guardian opened the door and gestured for Lissa to go first. Inside, the Queen sat on a slightly raised platform. She was wearing an immaculate dress that immediately made Lissa – who was still wearing her nightie – feel underdressed. But still, she walked with her head held high and curtsied in front of the Queen.

"Your Majesty," she murmured respectfully.

"Princess Vasilisa, I'm sorry for calling you here at such an hour." There was no hint of truth in her voice.

"It is no problem, Majesty, I wasn't sleeping very well." _Understatement of the century, Liss_, I thought to her. She couldn't hear me, but it was the thought that counts. (Get it? The _thought_ that counts? Haha...Never mind).

"But it is still rude for me to rouse you from your bed so early," the Queen argued back, always getting the upper hand. "Anyway, I would like to draw your attention to why I called you here."

"Of course, your Majesty," Lissa said and dipped in a curtsy again.

She clicked her fingers a girl younger than Lissa stepped forward from the shadows. The girl smiled a lazy smile at her, and nodded her head in respect.

"Vasilisa, this is my personal guardian, Ella. Seeing as your guardian has run away," Lissa immediately stiffened at a reference to me, "Ella will be your personal guardian."

Lissa looked more closely at the girl, Ella. She had dreamy hazel eyes that never concentrated on anything, but at the same time, not paying attention to her surroundings. Her stance was completely casual, not at all prepared for a fight. _That_ would be Lissa's guardian? No. Way. Was Tatiana _trying_ to get Lissa killed? There was no way that she could want Lissa to die. Was there? Lissa was thinking along the same lines as me, but she was too polite to say anything to the Queen.

"I assure you, Princess, Ella is the best of her kind. It's with a heavy heart that I let her go."

Ella smiled happily at the Queen and curtsied again. She didn't seem to be the brightest of people. My anger flared again. How dare Tatiana give Lissa her? It was not right! But being in England, I could do nothing except seethe.

Her Majesty gave Lissa leave, and she took it quickly, Ella trailing behind her at a distance. As soon as they were out of the door, a guardian slammed it behind them. Lissa stopped to look at Ella, who looked back at her pleasantly.

"Hi," Lissa said.

"Hello," Ella replied. She spoke quietly, shyly.

"So, how long will you be my guardian."

Ella spoke slowly, but there was no hint of a lie in her voice. "I don't know, Your Highness, as long as Her Majesty wishes."

Lissa was leading the way to her rooms, but she looked at Ella as she spoke. "If you're going to be my guardian, then you need to follow some rules. First off, _please_ call me Lissa. I really don't like the whole 'Princess' and 'Your Highness' thing." She watched as Ella pursed her lips. Hating to make anyone unhappy, she sighed and asked, "If that's alright with you?"

"Please, Highness, I mean, Lissa, can I not call you Vasilisa at the least? I wouldn't want the Queen to disapprove." As a guardian, I could see that Ella hated to ask favours of Moroi.

"Fine, Vasilisa," Lissa compromised. "But no royal terms."

"Okay. Vasilisa. Anything else?"

Lissa shook her head. "No, nothing. Just that."

They walked in silence for a little longer before Lissa turned to her and said, "So, how did you become the Queen's personal guardian?"

Ella shrugged. "I don't know. She never told me."

"Yeah, but surely you must have a talent? There must have been something." Lissa was trying to be friendly to the new girl, but she was finding it exceedingly hard with this quiet, irresponsive girl.

"I don't know," she just repeated.

Lissa's thoughts were full of frustration, but she just nodded calmly at the girl and opened the doors to her room. Christian was standing in the middle of it, waiting expectantly. I expected Ella to react to this threat, but she just smiled dolefully at him and examined her surroundings. Okay, he wasn't a threat, but how was she to know that?

"Lissa!" he said happily when she re-entered. "What did the Queen want?"

"To give me my guardian," Lissa said and gestured to Ella who nodded respectfully at Christian. "Christian, this is Ella. Ella, this is Christian. Ella used to be Her Majesty's personal guardian, but she generously let Ella guard me as Rose isn't here."

"It's nice to meet you," Christian said, shaking her hand.

There was an awkward pause, and then Lissa said, "Your room is just through that door, Ella, if you want to check it out. I'll see you in the morning."

Ella nodded and headed towards the door obediently. I watched in horror. Sure, _I _could leave Lissa alone with a strange man because of out bond, but Ella couldn't know! For all she asked, Christian could be some Moroi murderer, who Lissa thinks she trust. But Ella didn't look back as she opened the door adjoining the guardian's room and Lissa's. There was a soft _click_ as the door latched into place, but then there was no more.

Christian turned to her with raised eyebrows. Lissa shrugged by way of response.

"No offence to Ella, but you seriously need Rose back," he told her.

Lissa's forehead creased as she heard her fears about Ella confirmed. "I _know_ I need Rose back, but she hardly comes when she's called, does she?"

"No, but Ella does _not_ look like a good guardian. She looks like she would let you be stabbed in front of her eyes."

"Christian!" Lissa scolded, hitting his arm. "She can probably hear us. And anyway, we haven't seen her fight, it's mean to make judgements."

"I suppose she has to be good at something if she was the Queen's personal guardian," Christian admitted. "I still think you would be better with Rose."

"We have to make do with what we've got, Christian. Are you staying or going?" Her heart wanted him to stay, but her brain wanted him to leave – the part of her brain that wasn't missing me.

"Going. I don't think it would be wise to stay with her next door. For all you know, she's still working for Her Majesty."

Christian had touched on a point that neither Lissa nor I had thought of. Was that the Queen's reason for giving Ella away? A personal guardian is completely loyal to their master; they don't leave without excellent reason. If Ella was spying for the Queen, then it would explain why neither of them seemed very sad to leave each other.

And, it was going to be torture for Lissa, who enjoyed the few hours she had away from the Queen, if she had to always been on guard because she was being trailed by a spy that she couldn't get rid of.

But I would worry about it later, when I didn't have to storm a prison. It would just have to be Lissa's problem for now. With an almost relieved sigh, I extracted myself from her mind.

Back in England, the sun was beginning to rise.

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	5. The Prisoner

**_Chapter Five  
The Prisoner_**

As promised, Sydney was waiting for me outside the golden arches of McDonalds. Her hair was pulled up into a bun on the back of her head, and she was dressed neatly all in black. I, on the other hand, barely had enough energy to brush my hair and change clothes. My night had been as sleepless as Lissa's had been.

"Good morning," she said briskly.

I stared at her through almost-shut lids. "Don't be perky, it's not natural so early in the morning."

"Stop it; if I'm getting you in, you're going to be quiet and polite. Now let's go."

"Sorry for breathing," I mumbled under my breath.

Sydney looked back at me and raised an eyebrow. "What's wrong with _you_ this morning. You should be happy, excited! At the very least, you should be nervous."

"Lissa's already in trouble. I've been gone for less than a week, and already, Tatiana has got her own personal spy trailing her."

"How did she manage to do that? And how did you find out?"

I tapped my head. "Our bond," I reminded her. "I slipped into her head last night. The Queen gave her a new guardian, who hasn't even left school yet, who is most likely a spy. So if Lissa gets attacked, I'm just going to hope that another guardian is close to her to protect her."

"Surely she's going to have more than one guardian though."

"Yeah, she will. But Ella, the new one, is meant to be her _personal_ guardian. A replacement me." I suddenly realised that that was what was happening. "Oh my god, I've been replaced. Already. A guardian like _me_ has been replaced with a guardian like _Ella_. I didn't realise that the Queen hated me that much."

Sydney placed her hands on my shoulders and looked into my eyes. "Deep breaths, Rose, deep breaths. Surely it's better for Lissa to have a bad guardian than no guardian? When you go back, the girl will move aside and let you resume your place. Now, this is _not_ the time to start hyperventilating. Do that later. Right now, we need to be going." She jerked her thumb over her shoulder and pulled me down the road.

I jerked my hand away and she raised an eyebrow at me. "I'm sorry – do you have an aversion to contact?"

"No. Well yes, don't touch me, but it was because your suitcase handle was crushing my fingers." I pointed to the suitcase in her hand.

"Oh," Sydney said, looking down at her black briefcase. "Sorry."

I rubbed my hand where the handle has cut into it. "What's in there, anywhere?" I asked as we continued walking.

"Alchemist's stuff. Potions and whatnot." She shook it very delicately and I heard the _chink_ of glass hitting glass.

"Oh. Why did you bring that?"

She looked at me as if I was missing the obvious. "Because I need to do my job. I can't turn up at a prison claiming to be an alchemist without all of my stuff."

That was unwelcome news. "We're actually going to announce ourselves?" I asked. "I thought you knew some secret passage or something!"

"Nope. I had to work today, anyway, you're just my Dhampir helper."

"Alchemists have Dhampir helpers?" I hadn't known that. But then, I knew next to nothing about alchemists.

"Yep. Only for the really…not nice jobs that require the vampires being held down. Usually we choose to use the prison's guardians, but we can bring our own. You'll have to be blindfolded on the way, but apart from that, they will let you pass."

"The secret passages sounded more fun," I complained under my breath. If Sydney heard, she ignored me.

It was a ten minute walk to the O2 Arena, and then a four minute walk into the standing area. The stage was empty, and one lone man scurried around the sound desk. He nodded at Sydney as if he recognised her, and then hurried away. Our footsteps echoed in the empty room. She led me to the front of the standing area, right up to the metal fences that kept the crowd away from the stage.

Nestled in the corner, there was a thin black line that formed a square. To a human it would look like another wire, but to someone who was looking for a trapdoor, it would look like...well, a trapdoor. Sydney walked into the middle of the square and jumped up and down seven times in quick succession then stepped out of the square. I guessed that they didn't have many people knocking during a concert.

The floor rose a tiny bit and eyes appeared in the crack.

"Yes?" the person under the floor asked.

"Alchemist Sydney Mlaka, and my helper, Rosa Yagnon."

The crack opened a bit more and the eyes travelled up and down our bodies. "Mlaka. You have been before. But your helper is new, isn't she?"

Sydney nodded calmly, but I could see her fingers crossing behind her back. "My new helper. I'm visiting Mr Dashkov today, and a helper seemed appropriate."

"Why not use one of our guardians?"

Sydney's calm didn't falter and she was still just as respectful when she answered. I knew that, by now, I would be mouthing off the intrusive guardian and telling him to get a life and stop prying into mine.

"Rosa and I are acquainted. We have worked together before in Siberia." Her crossed fingers tightened and sweat beaded the back of her neck. "And on a patient such as Mr Dashkov, you need all the advantages you can get."

The square of cement moved upwards and then across, revealing a hole in floor that was about four feet wide with ten guardians standing underneath it. They moved aside to let Sydney and me drop down. One of them held out a black blindfold towards me.

"Yagnon, you must go blindfolded." Well, it was always nice to have a choice in these things. I felt like saying that, but I bit my tongue to stop myself getting kicked out. I was so close to Dashkov. Each step got me closer to his brother and the answer. The smooth, black material passed over my head and was tied tightly underneath my ponytail.

"You've had a few kills," the guardian noted. It sounded like he was preparing notes to write a biography about me. I chose not to reply, but he didn't seem phased.

Sydney's clammy hand wrapped around mine and pulled me forwards. "This way, Rosa."

I couldn't see a thing but I could smell stale air and hear the muffled footsteps. I didn't have to be able to see to know that it would be dark. _What a depressing place_, I thought to myself. The people who were housed in here really must go crazy.

The floor started to descend slowly and then more steeply. My spare arm shot out to the side for balance. It started to even out after about five minutes, but I could sense the miles of earth above our heads. Sydney jerked my hand and I stopped, listening.

"An alchemist?" a woman asked. Another guardian, probably.

"And a helper. Here to see Victor Dashkov," Sydney replied. Her voice was steady and her hand didn't shake. She was obviously less nervous than she had been with the previous guardians. Maybe there was less chance of being found out down here.

"Go through," the guardian answered and Sydney pulled me along again. I heard metal scraping along concrete and then a _thud_ as a door closed. It sounded like it was behind us. It was not a comforting thought; being trapped miles under ground with a steel door between us and the only exit. I just hoped that the cells were as impossible to escape from as they say.

A minute later I realised that there were footsteps shadowing ours – Sydney's loud foot falls almost masked them.

"You may remove the blindfold now." It sounded like the same woman who we had just talked to.

I reached up behind me and undid the tight knot, pulling the material away. The corridor was as bleak as I had imagined. It was large, with metal doors spaced evenly along both sides. I could faintly hear whispers and moans coming from behind these doors. The whole place stank of hopelessness. There was nothing good about this place. I was suddenly very, very relieved that I had not brought Lissa. As much as my abandonment was hurting her now, she wouldn't be any happier with me.

"Which one?" Sydney wasn't paying attention to me; she was examining each door, as if she could x-ray the prisoner inside.

The guardian, who was a giant, tapped on the closest door to us. The noise echoed a few times before the noise was swallowed up by the dead air.

"Thanks." Sydney put her hand on the door and it swung open. I blinked and looked closer, expecting to see a finger scanner or something, but nope, nothing. Sydney took one look at my ogling and smiled slightly at the guardian. "It's Rosa's first time as my helper here. She's not used to doors like this."

The guardian smiled slightly and nodded as if she had seen it all before. I grimaced, I hated it when I was inexperienced in something that everyone around me seemed to be experts in. Sydney stopped my musings by grabbing my hand and pulling me into the room. The iron door swung shut as soon as we were on the threshold.

The room itself was as uninspiring as the corridor outside. Dark grey cinder bricks were left unpainted and undecorated and a rough concrete covered the floor. The only light came from a lonely bulb hanging from the centre of the ceiling. Across the middle of the floor there were black bars that stretched from the floor to the ceiling. They were welded on both sides. On one side, Sydney and I stood next to each other, a black briefcase clutched in her sweaty grasp. On the other side, a thin and half-dead man stared through the bars at us.

Victor Dashkov.

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**I hope you enjoyed chapter 5! Show me the love in reviews, please!**

**~ Charlotte -LOVE- xxx**


	6. Old Enemies, New Information

**Sorry it's been so long since an update. I've been really busy (and forgetful) so it's been way to long. I promise that chapter 7 will be quicker and I'll start writing immediatly. By the way, this chapter hasn't been proof read because I felt so bad about the amount of time it's been. So it's not perfect.**

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_Chapter Six  
__Old Enemies, New Information_

"Rosemarie?" he asked. I shuddered at the sound of his voice; the last time I heard it, I had been happy, with Dimitri and Lissa. And the time before that, I was fighting with my first Strigoi. "Is that you?" He moved closer to the bars, his thin arms tried to slip through the gaps. "Is that really you?"

"Mr Dashkov," I answered coolly. Yes, this man was dying a horrible death, but that didn't excuse what he had done to Lissa.

His gaunt face pressed up to the bars, thin fingers curling round the metal. "Praise the Lord…It really is you." He couldn't manage anything louder than a whisper.

"Not really 'praise' anything, Mr Dashkov. I need to ask you a few questions." It was hard not to feel sorry for him and I flicked a loose strand of hair behind my ear instead of looking at him in the eye.

"What do I get out of it?" he asked immediately. He may be nearing the end of this life, but that didn't stop him thinking in his usual.

Sydney spoke for the first time. "What makes you think you're getting anything out of it? You've been visited before by alchemists, haven't you noticed that you don't get much in return for your answers?"

"My dear, the times that I have been visited my alchemists have long past," he said with a slight smile forming on his face. "I only ever was seen by one, and that was several months ago. Now, you, accompanied by a guardian helper – and not just _any_ guardian – turn up and say that you never finished asking me questions. I may be dying, but my brain is still functioning perfectly."

I could tell Sydney wanted to argue some more, but I interrupted. "Okay, what do you want?"

His cool eyes turned on me. "I do not want to die."

I snorted. "Not gonna happen, next?"

"Rose, you and I know well that it is extremely possible for that to happen. You are a prime example."

Of _course_ he would want Lissa to heal him. I had hoped that he would have gone senile enough not to care about that.

"Vasilisa is in America. She doesn't know where Rose is and even if we miraculously brought her over to England, this prison has visiting hours," Sydney pointed out.

Victor didn't seem to find any of these things particularly troublesome. "That brings us quite nicely to my second demand. If I tell you, you have to get me out of this place. You are right, I _am_ dying, and even if I do live my final hours trying to get to a Spirit user, I would be spending my final hours _free_. I don't want to die here." A sudden vulnerability appeared in his eyes, but it was quickly masked.

Sydney grabbed my arm and turned me around so he couldn't see us. She didn't speak, but she mouthed, _how much do you want this?_

I almost rolled my eyes, quickly mouthing back, _I can't live without this. It has to happen._

_Even if it means healing him?_

I thought about how Lissa was going to take the news, it wouldn't be good. She would refuse. And I couldn't ask her to do that, not for him. Not even for me.

"No," I said to Victor, turning around to face him. "By breaking you out of this prison, we will be risking our lives. Even if we succeed, they will know what we have done. We'll be outcasts, hunted just as fiercely as you-"

"If you're not going to break me out then we have a problem," he cut in.

I held up my hand to stop him. "I never said that. If we break you out, then we are ending our own lives, effectively. So, we're going to come to a compromise. I will get you out of here, you will tell me what I want to know, and then we shall never see each other again. You will go away to die in peace – as a free man. And that will be enough. I'm not promising anything on Lissa's behalf, and I'm not asking her to do that for me."

"Then we don't have a deal."

I remembered his earlier slip, when he had shown me – for a brief second – how much he wanted this. "Fine, your loss. I guess you'll just rot in here. Come on, Sydney, I'm sorry for wasting your time."

Sydney beamed a huge grin. "No problemo, Rose, it was quite the adventure."

We both turned to leave. Sydney's hand reached out to press the magic door when…

"Wait!" We both turned to look at Dashkov expectantly. He closed his eyes and sighed very quietly. "If you free me, then I will tell you everything you want to know. I don't want to die in here."

"I'm cool with that." He and I nodded at each other in agreement before I looked at Sydney. "So, Miss Prison Expert, how do we get out of here."

She knelt on the floor and opened her brief case. Inside, were several different glass vials and bottled, all neatly labelled. It didn't take her long to find what she was looking for. She handed me a tiny little bottle with a miniscule label and told me 'not to shake it' before snapping the clasps back and standing up with another glass in hand. She took the vial away from me and walked towards Dashkov.

"This is a poison that was developed to kill Moroi who were going crazy," she told him, holding up the tiny bottle. Then, the she held up the bigger one. "_This_ one is a potion meant to cause extreme pain. On their own, each is deeply unpleasant, together they cause a state like death, but only for a day – and then you start to wake up."

"Like Romeo and Juliet," he said, staring at the little vials in wonder. A small smile touched his lips and he looked at me. "Will you go stabbing yourself when you see me 'apparently' dead."

"No thanks, Romeo, I don't love you that much."

He clutched his heart and sighed mournfully. "Oh, the pain! Being rejected by my only love!"

"Shut up and drink," I told him and he took the painful one from Sydney. She had uncorked the bottle and he took a swig from it. A moment later, he fell backwards onto the floor.

Sydney grabbed the empty bottle off the floor and gave them to me. In a rushed voice, she said, "He'll start screaming in a minute, a guardian will come in, and I need to you to look through the case in a hurry like you're pretending to look for something. Then hand me this," she passed me the tiny one, "but remember not to shake it. I need to get into my position."

I did as she directed and opened the black case, placing the tiny vial in an easily accessible pocket. Sydney knelt on the floor by the bars and pulled Victor's hands through, holding his wrists together with one of hers. With the other, she grabbed his hair and pulled his head right up to the bars, his mouth lolled open. Without warning his eyes burst open and a scream came from his mouth like a javelin. I started 'searching' frantically, and two seconds later the female guardian bust into the cell. She took a look at the situation and then relaxed.

Her eyes travelled to me and then she yelled, "I don't care what you're looking for – just shut that bloodsucker up!"

I pretended not to be shocked at her outburst but it was hard as I hard never heard a guardian talk about a Moroi like that. We were always ultra-respectful to them. Although, I suppose that law breakers were a bit different.

I took the tiny vial and threw it over to Sydney, who caught it one handed and slipped the top off. With a sharp thrust, she shoved it into Victor's mouth. She managed not to glance at the bottle the whole time – if she hadn't told me which one to throw, she wouldn't know what she had just shoved in Dashkov's mouth. A few seconds later, he relaxed in her grip and she shoved him away. Sydney looked up at the guardian, her golden tattoo catching the light.

"Sorry about that – I mislabelled the potions," she said cheerfully, chucking the empty bottles back at me. I caught them and shoved them into two random pockects.

The guardian smiled politely and nodded. "No problem," she said. "Just try and keep it down next time."

Syndey smiled and nodded. The guardian didn't leave the room this time, merely retreated to one corner. Sydney came over to me and picked out another bottle before walking back over to him.

"Rosa, could you come over and hold him?" she asked. I left the briefcase lying open and went to kneel at Sydney's side. Through the bars, I grabbed hold of Dashkov's shoulders and pulled him close to the bars, trapping him. Syndey shot me a sidelong glance and rubbed her hands together as if she was cold. The guardian wouldn't have been able to see it from where she stood.

I took the hint and exclaimed, "He's cold!" And it was true. He had only drunk the second potion about a minute ago, but already his skin was like ice.

"What?" Sydney said sharply, pressing her hands to his face through the bars. A very realistic confused look crossed her face and she looked back at the potions. Slowly, she got up and picked up the case, pulling out the two empty vials. "Where these the two potions?" Her voice was quiet.

I nodded. "Yep. Is something wrong?"

"_Shit_," she said loud enough for the guardian to hear. She dropped the bag and pressed two finger to his neck. It was quite believable, actually. "Shit, shit, shit, _shit_."

"What?" I asked. The guardian had moved from the corner, her face alarmed.

Sydney looked up at me angrily. "You _killed_ him! Why did you throw me this one?"

"Sorry about not being able to read your mind!" I retorted. "I'll try harder next time."

Before Sydney said anything, the guardian held up her hand. "What's happened?"

"The potion that Rosa gave me to shut him up reacts badly with the stuff I had given him before."

"And killed him?" The guardian's voice had no trace of emotion. If I had to guess, I would say that she sounded _bored_.

Sydney spread her arms in an apologetic gesture. "Sorry."

The guardian sighed. "Oh well, it just means some paperwork. He was dying already, wasn't he?"

"Sandovsky's Syndrome," I put in.

"Yeah, that was it." She pulled out a notepad from her jacket and wrote down a few things. "Well, we'll get that cleared up and we'll contact you if we need his body to be disposed of."

Sydney bit her lip and nodded, the picture of innocence. "Of course. Sorry for the added work, I hadn't meant to do that."

"The guardian just waved her hand. "Accidents happen all of the time. Walk to the door you came through, guardian Magrs is there, he'll escort you back."

Sydney nodded and snapped her briefcase shut before walking towards the door. I followed her. Guardian Magrs was a surly bloke, who shoved the blindfold towards me in a no-nonsense way. I wondered idly if any of the guardians here had a sense of humour. Or a life. The walk back up the steep tunnel seemed shorter, although it still left me slightly our of breath. I needed to do some more exercise. The blindfold was removed from my eyes and we were hurried out of the prison while there were no humans hanging around. Once we were standing outside in the cool air, Sydney breathed a sigh of relief.

She turned to me and gave me a half smile. "Things I do for you, Rose. You owe me big time."


	7. Unpromised Guardian

**Thanks for your reviews on _Old Enemies, New Information_. Just to let y'all know, Mr. Dashkov is not dead. Sydney explained this to Rose. The two potions combined created a state like death but not actually death, like in Romeo and Juliet. It's explained a little more in this chapter, just to confirm everything. Anyway, I'm going away from Rose and Sydney for a few chapters and concentrating on Lissa and Ella.**

**Thanks again to all of my wonderful readers and reveiwers! Please, if you read and like it, show me your love in the comments. And if you read it and don't like it, tell me in the comments! **

**~Charlotte -LOVE-**

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_Chapter Seven_

_Unpromised Guardian_

"So…Victor still is alive, isn't he?" I asked.

Sydney turned and looked at me as if had grown an extra head. "Duh. Of course he is. Why did you bother asking?"

"He looked pretty dead in the cell," I said.

"That was just the potions effects. Together, they create a state _like_ death. It slows down the blood flow in the body, making them pale, and their pulse also slows to a rate where they are classed as dead. I told you all of this in prison."

"Yeah, I know. But your acting was pretty convincing and he did look _dead_."

She grinned at me. "I'm flattered. Don't worry though, Dashkov will be standing in front of you with a beating heart before you know it."

"I don't really know whether that's a good thing or a bad thing."

"It better be a good thing, I'm not risking imprisonment and death for nothing."

I crashed in Sydney's place because it was closer. She watched me in disdain as I went through the fridge eagerly. When I looked up momentarily from my quest hunting cheese and pickles, I saw her wrinkling her nose.

"What? I'm _hungry_. Had you not notice that we missed lunch?"

"No, not really," she said as she fell into one of her chairs.

Her apartment was small, but fancy. Most of the furniture looked designer, and it had a view of the river that flows through London. It surprised me somewhat, I expected her to live in something a little less…permanent. I also expected her fridge to be a little better stocked.

"Do you not have _any_ cheese?" I complained after scouring all of the shelves.

She looked at me, surprised. "Oh, is _that_ what you were looking for? If you had mentioned it sooner, I could've told you that I don't."

I grimaced and grabbed some tomatoes from the bottom shelf. "What kind of person doesn't have cheese?"

"A vegan," she said. "Are you going to have a tomato and pickle sandwich? That doesn't sound very appetising."

"Anything it appetising when you're as hungry as me." I sliced the tomatoes up using a knife with a glass handle and shoved them onto a slice of bread.

Sydney didn't say anything, but I could see the eye-roll. Despite her negativity, the sandwich wasn't terrible. In fact, it was quite nice in a weird way, I would have to remember to make them at the Academy.

"Oh, I forgot to ask," I said, wiping tomato juice from my chin, "where do we collect Mr Dead-Body from?"

"I collect him – you wait here and keep an eye on my apartment. I don't want any suspicious vampire breaking in." Alchemists did not like vampires in any shape or form. They understood that Strigoi were very evil, but so were Moroi, and us dhampirs were the unnatural offspring of the hellish Moroi. This belief was something that Sydney managed to shake off around me, but it never completely disappeared.

Her gross generalisation annoyed me, but not as much as what she was actually saying.

"What?!" I exploded. "I'm coming! You're just not letting me come? You can't do that, Sydney!"

Sadly, her raised eyebrow silenced me. "Rose, you can't come. It's not because I don't think you should, it's because you can't. Alchemist rules are flexible, but this is one that will not bend, okay? I'll get him back here as soon as possible, but that might be a couple of days. Go home and check up on your girlfriend. I'll call you."

I sent her a venomous glare, finishing off my lunch with two bites. "I really don't like you sometimes." I stalked towards the door, pausing only to shout, "Lissa is _not_ my girlfriend!"

Her annoying laugh followed me out onto the street.

***

The receptionist smiled blandly at me as slammed into the hotel and up the stairs to my room. I threw myself backwards onto my bed, flicking the hairs that landed on my face away. Not being able to face the prospect of doing nothing but stare at the panelling, I went to visit Lissa.

I tried not to dwell on the fact that Lissa would be pissed that I had invaded her head every day for a week now as I entered her mind.

It was midday back in Montana. Well, more like midnight, but midday for all vampire purposes. Lissa, Chrisitan and Adrian were having lunch. Eddie had also joined them, along with a few other novices. It was obvious why. To Lissa's right, Ella sat quietly. Her gaze was fixed on her plate and she was eating her way through a mountain of food. Lissa was secretly jealous of the guardian for being able to eat all of that, Liss would feel sick halfway through.

"So where'd you go to school, Ella?" Eddie asked.

Ella didn't look her from her plate. "Court."

Lissa and Christian exchanged confused glances. "There's a school in Court?" Christian asked.

She shook her head. "No, I just learnt everything from the people there."

Oh crap. Really, this girl was pathetic. She hadn't even had proper guardian training. Lissa took a quick look at her neck and saw that she was unpromised. I groaned inside. This situation could not get any worse. The Queen really had it in for her.

"Oh… Cool, I guess," Eddie said, visibly shrinking in uncertainty. Christian took Lissa's hand and squeezed comfortingly. He had the same worries as me.

They ate in silence for a little longer before Ella announced that she wanted more chips and got up, moving away from the table. Immediately, everyone shifted into a tighter group, pressing heads together.

"What is Tatiana thinking? Giving you an unpromised guardian?" Christian said.

Eddie smiled comfortingly at them both. "Don't worry – I'm not going to let Lissa get killed. I'll keep an eye on you."

"Thanks, Eddie, but we don't know about Ella. She may be really good-,"

"-and I'm a potato." Christian snorted. "Lissa, she isn't good. She hasn't even been promised."

"Rose hasn't been promised either," Lissa reminded him.

"Yeah, well Rose doesn't go around claiming to be a full guardian, either."

Lissa could've argued back, there were several occasions when I pretended to be a guardian, and I did think of myself as a guardian, but Ella arriving shut her up. She didn't even notice the awkward silence as she began chewing her chips. I groaned again. As soon as it was possible, I was coming back.

The bell rang, signalling the end of lunch, and the group dispersed. Eddie and the rest of the novices headed over to the gym for extra practices, while Lissa and Christian –trailed by Ella – headed over to the classrooms. They were in separate lessons as they were doing their specialised magic classes, so they took their time getting there. Halfway into their journey, Alberta appeared in front of them.

"Sorry, Lissa, I was wondering if I could borrow Guardian Ordina for a minute," she said.

Lissa stopped for a moment, trying to figure out who Alberta was referring to, and then it clicked. "Oh! You mean Ella. Of course you can, I'll wait here."

Alberta nodded at her and then turned to Christian. "Ozera, I don't believe you have any reason to be here. Go to your next class, please."

Christian sighed and gave Lissa a parting kiss before sauntering off to the specialised fire class. Lissa leant against a nearby pillar as Alberta and Ella wandered away from her. She watched them both conferring and compared them. Alberta was very straight backed and formal. Being a guardian, I could see that she was always tensed, ready for an attack. Ella, on the other hand, stood casually, all of her weight on one leg and one hand on her hip. The other one swung slightly at her side. She watched Alberta with dreamy eyes, not paying attention to her surroundings at all, only concentrating on what was in front of her eyes. Despite Lissa's defence of Ella at lunch, Lissa knew that against an attacker, Ella would come off on the worse side.

"Sorry for making you late, Lissa," Alberta apologised as she returned with Ella.

"It's okay, Guardian Petrov, I don't think that they'll mind."

Alberta nodded and then stalked off in the opposite direction – towards the guardian quarters. Ella and Lissa walked side by side now, though still in silence. Lissa was a very sociable person, she liked to know that everyone was okay and – if they weren't – how she could help them. This meant that she took every opportunity to break a silence and begin a conversation.

"What did Guardian Petrov want? If you don't mind me asking."

Ella shook her head and smiled. "She just wanted to know if I wanted to be promised or not."

"Oh! What did you say?" If Ella was promised, then Lissa would be a bit more comforted by having her as a guardian.

Ella shrugged. "I said I wasn't bothered. And then she said that it would be better if I was, because people don't like unpromised guardians. So I said that I would like to be promised if it made things easier around other people. She said that I would have to do a short field assessment, so they can check, but apart from that, it would be easily arranged. So I said okay. And then she said she would arrange it as soon as possible."

"Will you be assigned to me for your assessment?"

Ella nodded but didn't say anything else. Lissa pursued the conversation, delighted to have had a talk with the silent girl.

"When are you starting?"

"She said that it would begin this evening. And then end on Sunday."

Lissa did the math. "That's not too bad – only two days. Well, more like one and a quarter. The other novices have to do theirs for two weeks."

Ella smiled again, and fell silent. As they were outside Lissa's classroom, she didn't bother starting up a conversation again.

To be honest, Lissa's specialised class wasn't much of a class. It contained her and Adrian messing about for an hour, sometimes testing a new effect of spirit. When she came in, Adrian was lounging across three desks. He gave Lissa a lazy grin when she entered.

"You're ten minutes late, Miss Dragomir, I should give you a detention." He waved his finger at her. Seeing him reminded me of how much I missed Adrian. I had left before he managed to give me his list on why he would be an excellent potential suitor. That reminded me how I had broken my promise to my Mum. I had only been back at the Academy for two weeks before I left again. I promised her two and a half months. She was going to be furious when she next saw me.

"Sorry, Guardian Petrov wanted a word with Ella and I had to wait for them to finish talking. And you may be above the rules – as you frequently remind us – but that means that you can't punish me for anything."

"Touché, m'dear," Adrian said. "Shall we get to work?"

Lissa raised her eyebrows as Ella wandered over to a chair at the back of the room. "We're doing work today? Really? That's a bit of a break from routine."

Adrian rolled his eyes. "Well, I want to try healing again today, and your boyfriend gets mad whenever we try in front of him."

She refrained from snapping back at Adrian, instead, she tugged open a cupboard door and pulled out the large plant they used for testing healing on. A few of its leaves were withered and dying from lack of sunlight.

Lissa hopped up onto the desk that Adrian had just vacated and waved her hand lazily at the plant.

"Go on then. Show me what you can do."

I didn't know that it was possible – but I almost fell asleep inside Lissa's head for the next hour. Watching her watch Adrian practice magic was almost as boring as actually being in the room with both of them. I don't know how Christian coped with it on a day to day basis. The bell rang and Lissa and Adrian looked up at the clock in surprise.

"Oh, guess I better go," Lissa said. Adrian nodded and helped her put the giant pot plant back into the dark. All of the leaves were green again thanks to Adrian's increasing healing powers. He walked to the door with her, something very unlike him. But his intent became clear when they paused at the door.

"Any word about Rose yet?" he asked. His voice was low and quiet, as if he was trying to mask the worry that showed through clearly.

Lissa shook her head. "Nope." Through the bond, I could feel an echoed concern. "Nothing. You'll probably hear everything first, though. You will tell us, won't you?"

Adrian bit his lip and nodded, anxiety shining though his eyes. I would have to make it up to him when I got back as well. He opened the door and ushered Lissa – and Ella – through. Neither of them said as word as they walked down the crowded corridors to calculus, Lissa's thoughts containing only me, and Ella's containing god knows what.

***

Back in England, I opened my eyes and sighed. I could feel sleep at the edges of my consciousness, dragging down my eyes. Still lying down on the bed, I stripped out of my top, trousers and socks, pulling my hair out of the tight bun I had put it in that morning. I would say hello to Lissa again tomorrow morning, unless Sydney called me.


	8. Field Experience

**Heya! So chapter eight is quite long and contains a few surprises. I won't keep you long here. Just to let you know, there is a cover and a banner for this fan fiction on my profile - just go and see them quickly. Secondly, the next chapter may take a while due to Christmas etc. If it's going to be an extremely long time, I'll post an A/N to tell you all, but I doubt it will. Merry Christmas!**

**~Charlotte - LOVE-**

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_Chapter Eight  
Field Experience_

When I woke up in the afternoon – I hadn't realised I was that tired – and checked my phone, I was disappointed to see no messages. Out of pure hope, I checked my inbox in case my phone was playing up. But no, no messages, no missed calls, no nothing. I wasn't going to get out of bed, however my stomach had other ideas. After complaining at me non-stop for half an hour – the complaints getting louder and louder every minute – I decided to get a breakfast bagel from McDonalds.

The little walk reminded me why I hated cities so much. Despite having great shops, they were too bloody crowded! I almost got in a fist fight with a guy who 'accidentally' elbowed me in the face, but I had to remind myself that I wanted to keep a low profile.

McDonalds was, mercifully, a little less claustrophobic than the street outside. I sigh in relief as the door swung shut behind me.

Mainly, it was full of teenagers who were spending the day in London, so I blended in well. As well as the kids, adults who've eaten a few-too-many Big Macs elbowed their way to the front of the long queues. I shoved a few gangly teens out of the way, earning some swear words and a fair amount of fingers, but I got my Breakfast McMuffin in return.

As I was exiting, my phone vibrated in my pocket and I whipped it out. A text from Sydney.

**Got a call from prison.**

**Need to deal with a body.**

**Be back in 2 days they think.**

**Text you soon.**

**Sydney xxx**

I sent her a reply.

**its quicker 2 txt if u ignore standrd english**

**be quick. i dont like waitin**

**rose x**

The McMuffin was burning my fingers while I texted, so I shoved my phone into my pocket as soon as possible and switched hands before my fingers fell off. I dug into the corner of it and groaned as the melted cheese hit my tongue – it was the best breakfast ever. As I was finishing and licking my fingers clean, my pocket vibrated again.

**If I text like you, I would become more like you and I don't want that to happen.**

**See you in 2 days.**

**Sydney xxx**

I chucked the paper wrapper in the next bin I passed and used both hands to send a quick message back.

**i reply quicker**

**2 days**

**rose x**

She didn't reply after that.

I left my phone on the bedside table in my mini-room at the hotel and went to Lissa. Really, I was extremely lucky that she was still awake, otherwise I would have been forced to kill myself out of boredom.

As I discovered when I entered her head, it wasn't that late in Montana. Not for a vampire, anyway. She was still up and about with Christian – sadly – and Adrian. They were all hanging out in the library. I felt Lissa's annoyance spike as the table next to her laughed loudly, she was trying to study. The library was full – as usual – of Moroi and Dhampirs catching up on late homework. The small tables were all full, and there were groups of latecomers sitting in circles on the floor. Everywhere you turned, there were people.

Christian was reading a thick manual that he had dug up about offensive magic, while Adrian napped in one of the huge armchairs, his feet propped up on the table. Lissa, meanwhile, was trying to catch up with Calculus, she had had to miss a lesson because she had a meeting with one of the schools counsellors, to discuss the effects that spirit was having on her.

"Would you _please_ stop _snoring_, Adrain!" she finally yelled, exasperated

Adrian jumped slightly and stare at Lissa with a groggy expression. "What?"

"Stop _snoring_. I may go insane and kill you in a minute."

"It's someone's time of the month," Adrian noted before his head fell back into the exact same position and a snore shook his body. Lissa threw her book at him, but he just swatted it away like a fly. She retrieved it from the floor with a disgusted expression as she tried to flatten out the bent pages.

Without any prompting, Christian stood up and walked to the back of Lissa's chair. He reached down, plucked the book out of her hands and set it on the table before gently pushing Lissa back so she was slumped low. Once she was suitably relaxed he started massaging her shoulders gently. A feel on calm spread from her shoulders all around her body as Christian worked his magic on her. Wherever his hands touched, Lissa's skin reacted with goosebumps. Feeling all of her emotions of love just reminded me exactly what I was missing. As much as I desperately wanted to leave her and go curl up in a ball, another part of my – a stronger part of me – closed my eyes and blocked out Lissa's thoughts of Christian and replaced them with mine of Dimitri. For a few, blissful minutes, I was with guardian Dimitri with no one around.

And then Christian stopped massaging and I was brought with a smack back into the real world. Normal, teenage noise abused my ears and light streamed harshly back into my eyes. Lissa and I sighed together as he left.

"Thanks," Lissa said to him and picked up her maths book again.

He flashed a lazy grin at her and closed his eyes. "No problem, love."

Feeling ten times happier and more relaxed, Lissa sank back into her chair and concentrated on the trigonometry. Adrian's nap had turned into a proper sleep and it looked like Christian was going that way too. I could feel Lissa's amused tolerance at them both as she nudged Adrian's feet on the coffee table they were all using as a foot rest.

_Find angle 'x' using cosine._

The problem echoed around in Lissa's head as the book gently slipped through her fingers. The loud noise around her gently lulled her towards sleep, the constant hum of voices providing a lullaby. I almost nodded off inside her head, despite sleeping for about sixteen hours the night before and I not being in my own body, but a sudden grip on Lissa's arm woke her –and me – up.

Her eyes snapped open and her head whirled around, trying to identify what was grabbing her. I tensed inside her mind, immediately pinpointing the attacker and their weak points even though I couldn't do much.

A second later, the hand that had been pinching Lissa's arm uncomfortably hard had disappeared. So had the arm and body it was attached to. I just had time to register Stan's – Guardian Alto's – face before Ella was standing in between them. Her brown hair swung around her face as she delivered two perfect, fast kicks straight to his chest. Her hands swung out and caught him before he could knock into any furniture. A stake Lissa hadn't noticed she was carrying flashed at the end of her arm as Ella successfully 'killed' Stan. All of that was done in about three seconds.

Before Lissa could ponder anything else, a flash of black caught her attention, but – just like earlier – before she could register any details, Ella was standing in front of her and the stranger. She grabbed their wrist and shoved her hip into their stomach before throwing them over her body and onto the floor, her stake came down to their heart and then she got off the dead guardian.

Her hazel eyes swept over the silent library, a concentration that transformed her face from the normal, dreamy state it was in, to a guardian-like expression – something I had never thought I would see on Ella's face. The change was startling. Once she was certain that no other 'Strigoi' were going to jump at Lissa, she offered her slow smile, the dreamy quality entering her eyes once again, before settling back in her seat by the window. She drew her legs up to her neck and rested her cheek on her knees – her arms wrapped around her calves. Her head was turned away from the room, creating the unsociable, uncaring demeanour that she usually radiated.

Lissa turned back to look and Adrian and Christian. The shock in their faces mirrored the shock in her mind, and mine.

"Wow," was all Adrian seemed capable to say.

"That was impressive." Christian was a bit more eloquent than Adrian, but his mouth was opening and closing like a goldfish's.

Conversation in the library started up again, and the two 'staked' guardians who had been talking quietly together, left as a pair. The noise rose considerably once the door shut behind them. Soon, it was exactly the same as it was before – except that people were now all talking about the same thing: Ella.

Lissa was now thoroughly bored of calculus and there was something more important for her to pay attention to. She shut her book closed with a snap and stood up. Christian mirrored her, except while Lissa packed up her bag, he walked towards her. His lips wound around her waist and his lips went to her cheek.

"Are you going to go to your room?" he asked.

"Yeah. I want to talk to Ella without the eavesdroppers." Even as she spoke, people looked up at her with interest and leaned in to try and hear what they were talking about.

Christian nodded. His lips brushed along her cheekbone and she shivered as he brought them closer to hers. They kissed for a few seconds before Lissa broke away.

"I really should go," she said, punctuating her sentence with a kiss. "I'll see you tomorrow. Bye." Slightly louder she added, "Bye Adrian!"

He gave her a small wave and a quick smile, before settling back into his chair. I watched his head tilt towards the nearest table, no doubt eavesdropping on their conversation. It was how he managed to find out every single piece of gossip the school offered. Well, that and the fact that he was friends with every single person of importance on school campus.

Lissa walked over to Ella and tapped her on the shoulder. "I'm going back to my room."

She nodded and stood up, stretching her arms as she went, as followed Lissa through the densely packed room. Where she walked there was silence, that restarting as hushed whispers when she left them behind.

Out in the corridor, Lissa picked up the pace. Ella walked happily by her side, her eyes skimming around the room.

"So," Lissa said after a minute of silence. "That was an impressive display. You're really talented at fighting."

Ella looked at Lissa, a small smile pulling up the corners of her lips. "Thank you very much. It's the only thing I've ever really liked doing."

"Why did you never go to an Academy to learn?"

She shrugged. "I was never given the choice. My Dad liked the idea of me being a guardian, but no one in our family ever went to train. Mum was busy working in Court, and so was Dad, so they never arranged anything. Plus, I was too old to start when I realised that I wanted to learn."

Lissa had never seen her this animated before. Her voice was still quite quiet and her eyes weren't that focused on anything, but she was having a proper conversation. I could feel that she was a lot happier about having this girl as a replacement Rose. It hurt me to feel that – and to hear Lissa think the word 'replacement'.

Since the moment I threw my dictionary at our kindergarten teacher, Lissa and I were going to be guardian and Moroi. There wasn't any reason that we weren't. Then, when the accident occurred and Lissa saved me, therefore bonding us, it just became more set in stone. Being miles and miles away from her, and being forced to watch as she accepted this girl as her guardian, was torture. Especially as I was incapable of coming back any time soon. It would be months until I could return, and I was certain that Lissa's friendship with Ella would only grow in that time. Leaving me as a second place guardian, fit just to watch them together.

"Who taught you, then?" Lissa asked. They were outside at this point, walking down the path lined with benches. Lissa hopped up onto one and walked along it's length.

"Lots of people," Ella said, watching Lissa with hawk eyes. "I would go up to guardians who weren't doing anything and ask for lessons. Some said no, others said yes. It was the only way to keep myself entertained at court – there is much else for a young Dhampir to do there."

"And you learnt everything just like that?"

"Well, mainly, yes. But then when I was about fifteen I got in a big fight with an older guardian. I couldn't lose the fight, so I used all of my skills. Her Majesty was passing on her way to one of her meetings and she saw me win. At first I thought she was going to tell me off for fighting, but she just looked thoughtfully and then walked away. Then, the next day, I was approached by one of her guardians, who took me under his wing and taught me everything else. Once I was trained to her Majesty's standards, I became her personal guardian. My parents weren't half shocked when they were told."

Lissa giggled and hopped up onto the next bench. "I can imagine."

"And then a few days ago; her Majesty told me that you needed a guardian, and that I was going to be it. It was really sudden."

A lump formed in Lissa's throat as she thought of why it had been so sudden. Memories of the day before I left rose to her mind – I had been acting so normal – she couldn't understand how I could leave without even saying goodbye. Or telling her that I was going.

"Yeah, it was pretty sudden." Lissa tried to tone the sentence so that it closed the conversation. Of course, the one thing she _didn't_ want to talk to Ella about, was the thing she was most curious in.

"Why did it happen so quickly? Usually guardians are planned for years before graduation, especially if you're royal. Plus, you're a Dragomir. The _last_ Dragomir."

"I did have everything planned out," Lissa said. "The two guardians I was going to have… Well, it all got complicated and I lost both of them."

Ella's voice dropped in volume, but she continued to ask the questions Lissa didn't want to answer. "What happened?"

Lissa sighed. For all she knew, she was going to be stuck with Ella for the rest of her life. There was no reason to keep secrets from her. Plus, from the small glimpses of her personality Lissa had seen, Ella seemed like a really nice, genuine girl. Not someone who cared about gossip.

"One of them – Guardian Belikov – he was captured in the fight against the Strigoi here. You know about that right?" Ella nodded. "He was captured and changed forcefully. I'm not going to be seeing him again." Lissa bit her lip for a minute. Dimitri had been the easiest one to talk about. "The other one…Rose. She had something to do."

"What?"

"I…I don't know. She never told me. Never told anyone. During the day she just packed up and left. I didn't know until I woke up the next night. Nobody I knew had the resources to trace her, plus when Rose doesn't want to be found, she isn't."

"Rosemarie Hathaway?" Ella asked. Shock covered her face. "Janine Hathaway's daughter?"

"Yeah."

"And Guardian Belikov…" Ella trailed off in wonder. "You really did have the best guardians fighting for you."

"I know. I was extremely lucky – they were both amazing guardians. But – from the little I know about fighting – you seem to be talented yourself. I've never seen anyone throw a punch that quickly."

I swore that Ella blushed at the praise, but she didn't offer any thanks. Lissa pushed opened the door to the girls dorm and smiled at the guardian on duty. Her room was on the first floor – a short walk from the main door. Ella followed her into her room, and then yawned.

"Are you going to bed?" Ella asked as she paused uncertainly in the middle of the room.

Lissa glanced at the clock on the wall. It was six in the morning – a very early time to go to bed. But Lissa wasn't in the mood to do any homework and the conversation between her and Ella had risen to a very uncomfortable level.

"I think I will, I'm feeling really tired. Goodnight, Ella," she said.

"Goodnight, Vasilisa," Ella said and entered her room through the door that connected both bedrooms, closing it softly.

Lissa sighed and quickly changed out of her clothes into some comfortable pyjamas, slipping underneath the thick duvet. She shimmied to the side of the mattress to flick the light switch on the wall before curling into a ball and shutting her eyes tightly.

I didn't stay to watch her fall asleep, instead I extracted myself from her mind and mirrored her position in my own bed. I felt her emotions smooth out into a dreaming state through the bond and wished that mine would do the same. But really, my mind was full of Ella's outstanding performance against the two instructors. Faced with a ninja like that – what sensible argument would Lissa have to get rid of Ella as a guardian. What sensible argument would she have to take a drop-out, law-breaking, Strigoi-loving, unpromised girl as her guardian? The bond didn't cover all of that.

And both of us were starting to realise that.


	9. Running Again

**Sorry that I was gone for such a long time. Things got busy around Christmas. Anyway, I'm almost done with Chapter Ten so you won't have such a long wait next time.**

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_Chapter Nine_

_Running Again_

My phone buzzed early in the evening. I had spent the whole day doing…nothing. I had dived in and out of Lissa's head, but nothing really kept me there. She spent most of it with Christian and Ella – once Christian managed to get Ella to talk, they got on like a house on fire, although Ella didn't understand Christian's easy use of sarcasm. The naïve part of her made Lissa warm to Ella even more. Because of this, it was hard to hang around with them. But all of this was put out of my mind when I read her text.

**I've got Dashkov, come over quick.**

**Sydney x**

**only 1.5 days :D**

**ill b there soon**

**(only 1 kiss?)**

**rose x**

As she didn't text back in the next minute, I put my phone down and packed my bag. I didn't know whether I was going to come back, but I guessed not. Inside, I shoved my worn, un-ironed clothes, my passport, extra pair of shoes, hairbrush, the small amount of make up I had brought and last but not least, my silver stakes. As I was pulling on my coat, Sydney replied.

**Sorry – I was in a rush. You get 4 kisses this time.**

**Is there something wrong with your fingers? I could barely understand that last text.**

**How long will you be?**

**Sydney xxxx**

Despite her jibe about my fingers not being able to function normally, I sent her a reasonably legible text back. In half the time.

**haha, ur wit cracks me up -.-**

**ill be there in 10**

**rose x**

Before I walked out of the door, I pulled one of the silver stakes out of my bag and stuck it into the large pocket on the front of my hoodie. It was midday, so there was very little chance of meeting a Strigoi, but it was better to be safe than sorry. Or at least, it is unless you get stopped by a passing policeman who wants to know what you're doing with a sharpened stick made out of silver in your pocket. Then you're pretty much screwed.

The receptionist was manning the desk when I walked down the concealed stairs. She didn't look up when I paused.

"Hello," I said loudly. "I'm going to pay now."

She looked up at me in a bored way. It was a pity, with her deep blue eyes and blonde hair she would normally considered pretty, except the permantly pissed off expression just made her look obnoxious.

"Okay. That will be," she paused to type something, "Thirty pounds."

I handed over the necessary notes and then the key to my room. She shoved the money into an ancient till and grabbed a receipt.

"You can keep that, I don't want it," I told her. She scrunched it up and chucked it into the bin. "Bye."

Sydney's place was a five minute walk, if I went down the all of the back alleys. Her contacts had managed to get her place in the fanciest – and most expensive – parts of London. I don't know why she was so grumpy most of the time, she did have a pretty good life when it came to the material things.

"Hello!" I cried as soon as she opened the door. "Where's the criminal?"

She grimaced and jerked a thumb behind her. "Sleeping still. I wanted to wait until you can until I woke him up. You know, so I had some muscle power."

"Is that all you consider me as?"

"Pretty much. You don't seem to like it when I call you a demon."

"I wonder why," I said scathingly as I followed her into the back of her apartment. I hadn't been here before, and I guessed – correctly – that it was a bedroom. She didn't pause as she led me through the spacious room with a double bed in it, though. Instead, she led me to the opposite wall where there was another door. Inside was an ensuite and Victor Dashkov.

He looked the same as he did in his cell when we left in. In other words, he still looked dead. But this time I could see his chest moving steadily up and down which lessened the 'dead' effect.

"Do we wait for him to wake up or what?" I asked Sydney.

She shrugged. "It depends – how long do you want to wait here for? Do you want to do some sightseeing around London?"

I _think_ that she was joking. "I just want to pack up and leave England as soon as possible. I don't like leaving Lissa for too long – last time she met an evil spirit user who tried to kill her."

"True. She hasn't gotten into any trouble so far."

"She has. She's got a new guardian who is possibly a spy for Queen Tatiana. I count that as a lot of trouble," I corrected.

"Nobody's trying to kill her."

"Yet."

"Yet," she agreed. " Hopefully you'll be back before then, though. And as soon as you're gone, I get to go back to my normal life. And hopefully, Utah."

I never really thought of Sydney as having a home. I first met her in Russia where she had spoken Russian fluently and known her away around as if she had lived there all of her life. And now she turns up in England, also knowing London like the back of her hand, it was easy to forget her American accent. I'd only heard her talk about her home once in Russia, and she hadn't elaborated on it – all she had said was she would have preferred to stay there than travel to St. Petersburg.

"I suppose you aren't coming with us," I said, pointing to myself and Victor to highlight the 'us' part.

Sydney snorted. "Hahaha… No. I wouldn't be allowed even if I wanted to. Travelling around with a convict in search of somebody who is most likely crazy or dead is not my idea of fun. Anyway, do you want to wake him up now?"

"The sooner the better." I stepped back to allow Sydney access to him. She moved passed me, a potion already in hand. I raised my eyebrows and looked over her attire. As practical as Sydney was, there were no pockets on her black suit. "I do _not_ want to know where you got that from."

She turned around a winked. "Nowhere dirty – don't you worry."

"I wasn't worrying, trust me. I was just contemplating the likeliness of you having a fetish of some sort."

"I bet it was a hot thought," she teased.

"It was," I said gravely and then laughed. "Hurry up anyway, I don't have all day to discuss the likeliness of you being a lesbian."

Sydney didn't say anything, she just turned around and opened Victor's mouth. Carefully she tipped the contents of the bottle – which I now saw was powder – into his mouth. When it was empty, she shut his mouth and held it closed before setting the glass in the sink. Within a minute, his eyes fluttered opened. She released his mouth and stepped back, so I could move forward.

Dashkov sat up, staring at the bathroom in amazement. Then he looked up at me, wonder filling his eyes.

"How… You actually managed it."

"You know me, Dashkov, when I want something done, it happens." There was a slight threat in my voice that he probably picked up on. "I've fulfilled my side of the deal – now time for you."

He turned wary quickly. "What do you want? I don't have anything to give you."

I sat down on the side of Sydney's bath. "I don't want anything that you own, even if you did own anything. I want something that you know."

"What?"

"I need to find your brother. I've heard he's hard to find, so I guessed that you would be the best way to get to him."

Dashkov looked at me as if I had gone mad. "You broke me out of the most guarded prison in the world – to ask me where Philip is? He's at Court, with the rest of my family. Can I go now?"

"Not that brother, idiot, your half-brother. Robert Doru."

"Why do you want to talk to him? He's mad. Although I suppose that that means you two would get on excellently."

I was so close to kicking him. "My reasons don't matter. Where is he?"

"The last time I heard he was camping in a cave in the Rocky mountains."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Sydney look up in interest, but I paid no attention. "Yeah, that's quite a _big_ mountain range. Which state? Which mountain?"

"He was in Idaho. And I can show you which mountain on a map."

Idaho… So close to Montana. I had been there a few times with Lissa. Not to the mountains, of course, but on our extended shopping trips and we attended a college in the south of Idaho during the two years we ran away. It had been our favourite our one out of all of the ones we had stayed at.

"Great! You're going to show me where," I told him.

"I'm going to _what_? You said that all I had to do was tell you what you needed to know!"

I shrugged. "I lied. Plus, I have doubts whether or not you're telling the truth. Also for all I know, your brother has long since moved on, and in that case I will need your help to find him."

"I don't have to do that. It wasn't part of our deal."

"I have a hell of a lot more power than you in this. But think about it this way: I can help you get out of the UK. You're on an island. Most countries around here don't speak English. I'm offering you a chance to get off this island into America. Which is a pretty big place. You can disappear within a second there – move to Canada or Mexico, live where you want to live. I'm doing you favour."

His head tipped back and closed his eyes as he thought it over. After a few minutes, he reopened them and looked at me.

"If I show you to Robert, then you'll leave me alone?"

"Yep. Forever and ever. I don't really have any reason to keep you with me, I do hate you after all."

"The feeling's mutual," he said darkly, glaring and Sydney – who was tapping away on her phone – and me. I shrugged in the most uncaring way possible.

"Okay! Are you ready to go? I don't want to stick around here."

Victor stretched his arms out experimentally, clenching his fingers. Then he slowly put his weight onto his legs while grabbing hold of Sydney's sink for support. I automatically recoiled when he took a few steps towards me and then regained my composure. I was going to have to travel across the world and then climb a mountain range with this guy, I had to learn not to want to vomit every time he made a move towards me. A smug smile had formed on his face and my desire to throw up morphed into a desire to punch him.

"Yes!" he said happily. "We can go."

With me in front, we set off out of Syndey's bathroom and towards her front door. I turned with my hand closed around the handle. Sydney was standing there, a smile on her face as she held up an envelope towards me.

"What's this?" I asked cautiously as I took it from her.

She waved her hand at Dashkov. "All of his papers. You can't just take him out of the country without a passport – can you? According to this, your," she turned to Victor, "name is Peter Dove and you're fifty nine years old. Your birthday is the seventh of June, 1950. And plane tickets for a flight to Coeur d'Alene, okay?"

I shook my head in wonder. "How did you even manage to do all of this?"

"I've had all of Dashkov's details since the day we broke him out of prison. And I booked the flights just now while you two were having a little heart to heart. It's the beauty of having a phone that connects to the internet – and a printer."

"You're incredible," I told her in wonder. "I hadn't even thought of all of this stuff."

"I know, that's why you're pathetic without anyone to help you. Make sure you don't die while I'm not there – I haven't done all of this just to let you kill yourself."

"No worries, I'll keep an eye out for anything that could be a hazard."

Unexpectedly, she pulled me into a tight hug, her golden tattoo pressing against my warm cheek. Her lips were at my ear and I caught the words, "Keep an eye on him, too."

I wrapped my arms around her as well and gave her a parting squeeze before backing out of her embrace.

Quietly I said, "He's what counts as a hazard." I completed the rest of my speech at a normal volume. "And thanks for everything, Sydney, you're a life-saver."

She grinned. "I know. Now go, otherwise you'll miss your flight. It's in an hour, taking off from Heathrow. And just call a taxi and ask them to get you there – they'll know the directions." She opened the door for us and ushered out. "Bye Rose."

"Bye Sydney."

I turned to hail a cab that was passing at that moment. It stopped and Victor got in, I waited until he shuffled up to the opposite seat and then hopped in. Sydney smiled and waved and then stepped back to shut the door.

"Where d'you want to go?" the man at the front grunted.

"Heathrow airport," I ordered.

"Arrival or departure?"

"Departure, please."

The cab driver set off without another word, picking up the pace as he joined onto one of the main highways. My head rested against the window, watching the city scenery pass with one eye, and keeping watch on Victor with the other.


	10. Coeur d'Alene

**Woop! Double digets!! Let's have a party! Let's have a party! *gets out streamers and balloons*  
Ahem...Anyway. The action does not start this chapter. :( But it does very soon. We are getting closer and closer to the interesting and tension-y parts of this story.  
Keep reading and commenting, I love each and every one of you. :D**

**~Charlotte -LOVE-  
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_Chapter Ten_

_Coeur d'Alene_

The slight bump as the plane touched down woke me up. To my embarrassment, I found my head resting on some strangers shoulder, one of the disadvantages with not having the window seat. I hastily muttered my apologies to her and turned my face away. Thankfully, Dashkov was also asleep so he had missed my humiliation.

A steward announced over the tannoy that we'd arrived. _Go figure_, I thought as the plane slowly taxied around the runways. The loudspeaker had made Victor jump awake. He looked around, shocked for a minute that he wasn't in his cell, but then he calmed down slightly as his eyes locked onto mine.

"I keep forgetting where I am," he explained.

"Whatever," I said and stood up to get my luggage (well, rucksack) from the overhead compartment and swung it onto my shoulders. Victor did the same with his bag that we bought at the airport – along with some more clothes for me and him.

It didn't take long for us to breeze through the airport at Coeur d'Alene. It was early in the evening, and most of the workers were looking forward to going home too much to be paying any real attention to anything. This wasn't enough to make me complacent though, I still twitched at every movement towards us and tried to run through the public area. Victor, on the other hand, could not have been more casual about it. He leisurely strolled around, pausing a few times just to admire being free. This drove me mad, and by the time we were reaching the main door, I was clutching his forearm and dragging him forcefully out of the terminal.

Outside, in Idaho, it was cold. There were patches of snow that had been flattened down into dangerous-looking spots of ice. The familiarity of the climate and the scenery made me homesick. I was only one state away from Lissa and the Academy. The familiar ache in my heart grew as I thought about how easy it would be to get there, just across one state line… And a mountain range. My mood turned sober as I thought about why I was really here. The closer I was to Montana, the closer I was to Doru.

"Okay then," I said, turning to my companion. "I'm following you."

A dazzling smile lit up Dashkov's features. Quietly he said, "What a delightful prospect."

***

As I discovered quickly, Dashkov didn't have much energy left in him. We had set out at about seven in the evening – after going to pick up necessary hiking supplies from a local shop and then getting a cab to take us as far into the Rockies as possible – and by midnight, we had managed to get about a quarter of the way up a mountain. And then he'd mentioned that this was only the first mountain, and that last time Doru had been several more mountains away. And then he reminded me that Doru might not even be where he used to be. The terrain was easy to cross, it was mainly grass or sand and it wasn't that steep. The trouble was that further up, you could see sheer rock faces and thick snow coats. If Victor couldn't even walk up a _hill_, how was he going to cope climbing up a _cliff_? One thing was certain: I was not going to give him a piggyback.

"So," I said after five hours of easy climbing. My breath was going easily still, and my muscles had several hours left. "What's your brother like?"

"Half brother," Dashkov corrected.

"Half bother, half prince, half monkey, whatever," I waved my hand. "What's he like?"

"Mad."

"Oh. Well that's great."

"And he likes to confuse people. He'll spend ages talking to you, and at the end of the conversation, he'll have made you wonder why you even started chatting. But when he's not confusing people, he's nice," he panted.

"Mad and confusing, but nice?"

Dashkov nodded. "You just have to give him a chance. He spent most of his life being tormented by the people in his class and so he doesn't have a high tolerance for vampires – Moroi or Dhampir – anymore."

"What happened at school? I mean, why was he bullied?"

Victor stayed silent for a while, and then he said, "For the same reason a lot of people are: he was a good victim. He was the illegitimate son of a royal and had spent most of his life being frowned upon or ignored by adults. When he came to school, the royals started hunting for a new victim, and he seemed like the perfect candidate. He started in the middle of the third year, which made him an outsider. The family he lived with wasn't royal and didn't have any connections, which made him an outsider. He had spent all of his life being the unwanted son, so he was used to being pushed around. He didn't _like_ it, not at all, but there was nothing he could do about it. And, at the beginning, he could live with it."

"But why did you help him? He was your brother, albeit a half brother."

"Because I was a year ahead of him and one of the most popular royals in my year. Why would I risk all of that to help a strange boy who I'd met all of two times? I couldn't care less what happened to him. And as I was saying, at first it was just very minor bullying: the kind that teachers just ignore. Small squabbles in the corridors, that sort of thing." He fell silent again, as if he was lost in thought.

"And then?" I prompted.

"And then people started specialising. At first, everyone thought he was just a late developer, and that there wasn't anything to worry about. There had been a lot of times when it took people a long time to specialise in one element. But then strange things started happening – effects of Spirit, I now know. He started seeing things that weren't really there, and he was always paranoid that something bad was going to happen to everyone. He kept going on and on about the end of the world, and the end of vampires. It alienated him even more. The bullying got worse and the teachers started avoiding him as well. Our Father wanted to take him out of school because he was making him look bad. I agreed with Dad, because as Robert got madder, the blame was put on my father and therefore, me. I was quickly losing my place as a royal and it wasn't good. So I had a word with Dad, who talked to Robert's Mother. They agreed to take him out of the Academy and educate him at home. He never really had a promising future, anyway, so nobody really cared. School went back to normal, just an old legend of the guy who went crazy, and I got my place back.

"The thing was, that after my graduation, he started to get weirder and as I wasn't in school anymore, it was my job to help him. I hated him for it, I still sort of do. It meant that for the first few years of my life, I wasn't able to join in all of the royal functions and court meetings. All because of my younger, illegitimate half brother."

"Bummer," I said sarcastically. I didn't know whether Dashkov was trying to tell this story so he was in a better light, but if he was, he was failing miserably. "Did nobody try to _help_ him at all? All you seemed to do was ignore the problem and him because you were angry that you couldn't go to some parties."

"And while all of that was going on, I was getting the symptoms for my own disease. That you couldn't cure," Victor went on as if I hadn't spoken. "All the attention was taken of Robert and put onto me. One night, when I was about twenty seven, it was reported that he had escaped out of his house. His mother was frantic, but my Father had had enough problems from her, so we blocked off all contact. He spent a lot of time and money researching any possible cures for me." Dashkov kept walking, but looked down at his frail hand. A note of bitterness entered his voice, "Not that it mattered, there wasn't – isn't – a cure."

"We all have to die," I pointed out. I wasn't going to like him just because he didn't have long left to live. "A lot of guardians die younger than you. None of us have a choice in that."

Breath rattled through his lungs audibly as the terrain got steeper and steeper. Instead of leading us straight up and over, Victor had chosen a route that led up around the sides of the mountain. I was about to protest that going this way would take longer, but then I remembered that Dashkov would take an age doing any sort of climbing.

"It doesn't make it any easier. And effectively knowing when you're going to die, like I do, does _not_ help."

"Yes, but just because you're going to die doesn't give you a reason to be a bitch to anyone else."

He smiled. "I like your bluntness, Rosemarie."

"I'm not being blunt, I'm telling the truth."

"I wasn't mean to him for the whole of my life. About five years after he vanished and I realised there wasn't a cure, I left to find hi and make it up to him. I was trying to make amends for all the bad things I had. I thought only had a year or two left." He smiled grimly. "I was wrong, but at that time it didn't matter. When I eventually found Robert, he was living as a hermit in Alaska in about five feet of snow, though he didn't seem to notice that. The first time I approached him, he tried to stab me with some rusty knife. My guardian intercepted that though, and I managed to calm him down. He didn't remember much of me, only that I had looked after him for a little while after I left school. I think that that made him trust me. But since then he's always kept in contact with me. When he moves, he tells me, though it takes a while for the letters to come through. And sometimes I go to visit him."

"Those years that you looked after him, did you study him? Because you knew about Lissa and Spirit before anyone else did. Apart from Ms. Karp."

"Yes, I did. I guessed that his madness was linked to the fact he didn't specialise, but I didn't know how. He never did anything like Vasilisa does, like the healing, which now makes me think his 'prophecies' have something to do with his power."

"Why didn't you ask him to heal you?" I asked in a low voice. "Why did you target Lissa and break so many laws when your own brother might have been willing?"

"I was afraid. The chance of him being able to heal is slim, and the journeys to find him are hardly easy. Plus, even if he was able to heal me, there probably would be an equal chance of him killing me. I wouldn't want to put my life in the hands of a madman."

We walked in silence after that. I wasn't paying attention to where I was going; really, I just focused on the back of Dashkov's feet. I knew that if Dimitri saw me, he would be extremely disappointed with my lack of concentration on my surroundings. It was unsurprising how little time it took me to think of Dimitri.

If I managed to get rid of Strigoi-Dimitri and bring back Dhampir-Dimitri, then I would be extremely happy. Not only because I had Dimitri back, but because I would have less problems. I was having trouble fitting his and Lissa's troubles into my life. And he might even be able to help me with Lissa. Of course, all of my musings were subjective, because it there was a large possibility that I wouldn't manage to change him back.

I let my mind wander about what would happen if I didn't cure him. The answer came to me like a flash: I would go back to Lissa and try to live life without Dimitri. Even if Lissa did have Ella, that wasn't going to stop me being close with my best friend. I would be a good guardian – like Dimitri always had been. Although I would have to go back to Siberia and visit the Belikov's again, at least to explain why I ran out on them and to check that they were okay. Plus it would be lovely to see them again.

"We can stop here," Victor said, breaking me out of my reverie. I blinked a couple of times and glanced around. We were at the bottom of another mountain, the one we had just navigated was behind us. A stream rushed past us on it's way down the valley. "Do you mind helping me set up a tent?"

"We don't need a tent," I said, sitting down on the grass. "It's perfectly comfortable down here."

"It won't be for me when the sun comes up," Victor pointed out. "Please help?"

"Oh. Sure." I had forgotten that Moroi had an aversion to sunlight. I had been walking around in daylight with Sydney for long enough that these habits had faded slightly out of my memory.

The tent was new – one of our many purchases at the store that morning – and small. It said it was big enough for two people, however when we had it up, it looked like it would barely fit one.

"You know what? I'm fine on the ground, no need to get cosy," I said as I examined the insides. There was no way I was going to snuggle up next to Dashkov.

Dashkov seemed to agree with me and he crawled into the tent without a word, dragging some of the food we had bought in with him, and zipping up the flap. Outside, I settled myself on the cool ground, using my backpack as a pillow.

I was tired. I had been walking since way too early in the morning. Plus, it had been up a mountain. All I really wanted to do was to go to sleep. But, as always, there was a little emotion tugging at the corner of mind, making me feel worse and worse as I tried to ignore it. I groaned and raised my arm to cover my face. Silently, I thought to myself; _five minute. Just check that Lissa is alright, nothing else. She'll be going to sleep soon anyway, you won't have to stay long_.

Yeah. Guilt is always there.


	11. Armies

**It's a short chapter today (sorry). The next update will be soonish.**

**While I'm blabbering on up here, I would like to say a _huge_, _massive_ thank you to Some Things Don't Have To End (Ellie). You are the most perfect and wonderful fan in the whole world and I love you so much. You review was the nicest review I have ever gotten - thank you soo much! I know you would like previews of Ghost, Ellie, but how about sneak-peeks of this instead? :)**

**~Charlotte -LOVE-  
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_Chapter Eleven  
Armies_

_I need to go to bed_, Lissa thought as she watched the sun start to rise. She quickly retreated back into her dorm room to avoid the daylight. The Dhampir on guard glared at her and motioned for her to go upstairs to her room. Lissa nodded and made her way through the dark, quiet building.

She hadn't wanted to be out so late, but the Queen would not stop talking to her. Lissa thanked the heavens that Tatiana was leaving next week. Finally, she would be free of spending every spare minute with her. Although, the Queen did often call her back to court so that Lissa could sit through another hour of meetings, so it wasn't complete separation.. Christian's earlier words popped in to her: _You made a deal with the devil_.

Ella had gone to bed early – she tripped over her own feet and knocked herself unconscious. Right after she successfully beat an army of three guardians single-handedly. Lissa expected her to be in bed asleep, after all, that's where Doctor Olendzki told her to go, so it surprised her when she opened her bedroom door and Ella was sitting cross legged on her bed. She smiled serenely at Lissa and went back to observing the wall.

"Ella," Lissa sighed and sat next to her, "you should be in bed."

She shrugged. "I'm fine."

"You still should be in bed. It's dawn." Lissa suddenly remembered the sun and stood up to shut her blinds.

"You're still awake," Ella pointed out.

Lissa sighed. "Yes, but I'm going to bed now." They both paused and waited for one another to move. "Well, I'm going to bed once you've gone into your room."

"I wanted to tell you something. I'll go to bed as soon as I have."

"Go on then. But be quick, I'm tired." While Lissa moved over to Ella, I looked around her room. Her ridiculously tidy room. I sighed, I longed to go in there and mess it up a bit – it had been a long standing annoyance of mine that she had a clean room and a long standing annoyance of hers that I had a messy room. At least her and Ella didn't have any silly jokes, that made me feel slightly better.

Ella waited patiently until Lissa was lying on her bed, and then started talking. "While you were talking with Her Majesty, I went to visit some of the guardians that I taught me. They were all really uptight and worried so I asked them what was wrong. Apparently, all the guardians are getting worried because over the whole of the United States, there hasn't been one Strigoi attack anywhere. They don't know what's going on, but they're suspecting that a huge attack is being mounted."

Lissa and me simultaneously gasped. "Where? When?"

Ella shrugged and smiled slightly. "They're guessing at Court, but with the Queen being here, they aren't so sure. They want to move her earlier."

Although the thought of a Strigoi army terrified Lissa, she had to fight a smile when she heard the Queen was leaving early.

"Are they going to give her some extra guardians?" Lissa asked.

Ella nodded. "It's the other reason I stayed up for you. Her Majesty…wants me to be with her."

Lissa froze. "What? When?" Tears came to her eyes and she blinked them away angrily. _First Rose, now Ella._

"Soon. I was told to get ready for a sudden leaving, but probably in about three or four days."

"I don't want you to leave," Lissa said, holding onto Ella's hand desperately.

"I'm sorry, but Her Majesty said. I have to do what she wants me to, I've always been her personal guardian."

"I know. I just don't want you to go."

"It will be alright. I mean, I'm going to come back, I'm not going to be out with Her Majesty forever. Just for a little while. Okay?" Her dreamy smile was back in place.

"Okay," Lissa said and leaned in for a hug. "Just…Take your time going. And now that you've told me, you can go to bed."

Ella nodded her head and then drifted into her room through the connecting doors. Lissa stayed on her bed and stared at the closed door as her vision blurred with tears. At that moment, sudden thoughts of me jumped into her head. They were just random memories of days we had spent together laughing and joking. _Rose_. The longing in that one thought was so strong that I wanted to jump up and run all the way to Montana.

I groaned and rolled onto my side, blinking my own eyes. I loved Lissa, I really did. But I wished that she was a bit more proactive. Sometimes I feel like I spend my life sorting out her problems and cleaning up the mess they made. Obviously, some of them were my fault, but I shouldn't need to go back and comfort her because a friend in leaving. In a fit of childish anger, I punched the rucksack-pillow.

"Ow," I muttered and rubbed my hand where it connected with the concealed silver stakes. At least the sun being up meant that I wouldn't have to deal with Strigoi.


	12. Distractions

**Again, it was a very long time. Sorry. I hope you like it & remember to review! :D**

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_Chapter Twelve  
Distractions_

"We're…nearly…there," Dashkov managed to say between short gasps of air. "Only…another…half an…hour or so."

About ten minutes ago, we had reached the foothills of the mountain that Doru was supposed to be hiding in. We had been walking once the sun set, through the dark night. It was freezing cold and our breath froze in front of our faces when we exhaled. At the top of this mountain, I could see that thick snow had settled.

As much as I despised Dashkov, I had to say that I was impressed by his stamina. The guy was almost dead and yet he hadn't complained once about the pace I had insisted on. Despite my previous assumptions that I would want to strangle him, Victor and I had gotten on in a strange way. Neither of us spoke, but we walked next to each other. The silence wasn't uncomfortable, just companionable.

"He isn't at the top of this mountain is he?" I asked. I was cold enough at the moment without having to trek through snow too.

"No," Victor said, still panting heavily. "He should only be about halfway up. We couldn't get to the summit in half an hour, Rosemarie."

A blast of cold air suddenly hit us. We both shivered and stuck our hands in our pockets. I laughed slightly at the synchronised movements. Whoever would have guessed that Dashkov and I would be Doing things together – let alone in sync. It's funny how the world works. Victor looked sidelong at me when I laughed, the moonlight catching his grey hair.

"Something amusing?" he asked.

I shook my head. "It's just the unlikeliness of the situation. I mean, I'm climbing a mountain with you – the person I hate most in the world. And I haven't once doubted that you're going to leave me stranded in the middle of the Rockies. Who would have known?"

He laughed quietly with me, and then we both went back to walking in silence. The ground was getting harder to walk on as we rose higher and higher. Shallow, grassy hills morphed into loose pebbles and sheer cliffs. The air became a little bit thinner and a little bit colder. _Who would want to live up here?_ I asked myself. A madman, I answered my own question quickly.

As promised by Dashkov, after thirty minutes of walking, we reached the mouth of a cave. It was even darker inside than out, as none of the light from the moon shone into the hole. Victor motioned for me to wait outside and then took a few cautious steps into the darkness.

"Robert?" he called tentatively. "Are you in here? Robert?"

There was no answer. Another breath of icy wind blew my hair into my face and brushed against my hands and any other piece of exposed skin. My teeth chattered audibly, the sound bouncing around the cave. A shadow separated itself from the wall, the shape of a man materialising in front of us, his features becoming clear as the light touched his face.

Robert Doru was not what I expected. From Victor's descriptions, I had conjured up an image of an old man who needed a haircut and looked like he belonged on the street. But the guy in front of me was…well, attractive. He had sleek black hair that fell in waves to his shoulder, pale skin like any other Moroi and very light blue eyes that looked like ice. As I studied him more carefully, I realised that he greatly resembled the Victor Dashkov I had known when I was still young. The healthy Victor Dashkov. In fact, they could almost be mistaken for twins.

"Brother." The warmth in Victor's voice was out of place. As was the tender, caring look on his face. "You're still here."

"Victor? Is that really you?" His voice was smooth and cultured, not the hoarse voice of a madman.

A happy smile broke Dashkov's harsh features. For the first time in a long while, he looked _content_. Not smug or calculating, not in pain or upset, not scared, worried, exhausted, evil. Just…happy. It suited him.

"Yes brother, I came to see you again," Victor said as he and his brother hugged. I could see Doru's muscles clenching as he embraced him tightly. When they broke apart, Dashkov continued. "And I've brought a friend. Robert, this is Rosemarie – Rose – Hathaway."

Doru took a few small steps back as he examined me, and then curiosity brightened his eyes. With the manner of a dog meeting another dog for the first time, he stepped up to me and looked me up and down. He walked around me slowly, my head watching his every move. Finally, he stood in front of my face again and looked closely into my eyes. I tried not to jump away when he breathed onto my face, he obviously hadn't brushed his teeth in a while.

"You're not a normal Dhampir." His voice, too, was quite disappointingly normal. "You have Spirit in you. And darkness. Why did you come?"

"Because you know something that I want to know," I said. "And I can't find it out from anywhere else."

He let out a short bark of laughter which made me jump and then smile. Finally, a sight of craziness. I quickly squashed my smile when I saw Dashkov look questioningly at me.

"Only I know it? Are you sure you want to hear it then? It's probably just something that I made up. Something to scare you with," he said. His face darkened and I could hear the bitterness in his voice. The bullying he had endured still hurt him.

Despite his pain, I pressed on. "I don't think that your crazy. I think that you're talking sense. I know what you say is true. Please."

He paused and looked at me closely again. His eyes were calculating – just like his brother's often were. As he inspected me, I became aware of a buzz in Lissa's feelings. I had been so caught up in finding Doru that I had been completely unaware of what Lissa was feeling, but in the momentary calm, her emotions battered against our bond. I gritted my teeth and worked to keep myself in the cave. I wanted to find out what was wrong with her, but the scene in front of me kept me in place. What was making Lissa so scared?

"I will tell you what you want to know." Doru's voice made it easier for me to keep focus. My heart leapt at his words. This was it. When I would find out what I had been searching for.

I smiled. "Thank you. One of my acquaintances once heard a story that you told." I rushed through my words. "About bringing a Strigoi back."

I heard Dashkov's intake of breath, and then a smug smile spread over his face. Of course, he had never known what I wanted from his brother because I didn't trust him with the knowledge. But his smile told me that he knew what Dimitri had become. I chewed on the inside of my lips and Robert looked at me in surprise.

"And you believed that?" Another short bark of laughter. "Maybe you are as mad as me."

My heart fell through my feet. "Does that mean that you didn't do it?"

This was not how it was meant to go. I wasn't meant to have done this whole quest not to get the answer. This. Was. Not. Fair. I was overwhelmed with disappointment, so much so that I suddenly found myself looking out at the academy grounds with Lissa.

Fear pulsed through her body like lightening as she looked at the fighting figures. She tried to make out Ella, but there was no way to see through the chaos.

_No_, I said to myself and wrenched out of her head, back into my own body. Lissa would just have to wait, I needed to be with Dashkov and Doru. But this was easier said than done. Lissa kept trying to drag me away from the person in front of me, at the time it was most crucial. Pain shot the through the bond and my knees went weak.

"It's not untrue," Doru was saying. "I'm just surprised that you would believe a rumour like that."

Why was he playing with me? Was it not obvious that I was being split in two right in the middle of his home?

"Please," I begged. "Just tell me."

"He was my friend, Stephen. Possibly the only person, aside from Victor, who had been nice to me at school. He had the same problems as me – the rich and the important singling him out for the wrong reasons. But he had a different way of dealing with it." Pain joined Lissa's fear and I almost screamed. "He ran into me and one of my guardians one day, when he was Strioi. Stephen was badly weakened with a stake, but he still managed to kill the guardian. Seeing Stephen writhing in agony was too much for me. He was the only person who I could have called my friend without being laughed at. I knew that I was different, and that I could make things that had never been dreamed of, but I couldn't do everything." Lissa's presence faded slightly from my mind as the pain retreated, but then slammed back at me with force. Robert had trailed off, looking thoughtfully across the mountains.

"Hurry up!" I moaned. "Please. Just, what did you do?"

I couldn't tell whether he was offended by my interruption, or if he just hadn't paid any attention, because he went right back to his slow narrating. I gritted my teeth, determined to wait it out.

"It hurt me a lot to see him pain. I knew that he would get better eventually – the stake didn't go anywhere near his heart. But still, I hated it. So I knelt by him and took his hand and tried to make the pain go away. I reached inside me and drew out my power, feeding it into his body, and the wounds started to stop hurting him. He looked at me with his red eyes, but then the colour started to fade as well. And then he was Moroi again."

My mouth dropped open. "That was all you did? You just _healed_ him? No secret magic spell or voodoo or Aztec sacrifices?"

"That was all. I just brought him back from the Strigoi."

My mood went from troubled, pained and worried to well past ecstatic. Healing? That was something that I could do. Well, not me, but a certain friend of mine. I smiled stupidly around the cave as I realised that this whole cure could probably work. And then that smile was wiped off my face as I remembered something else.

"Lissa," I gasped before sinking to the floor under the weight of my – _her_ – emotions. It was like the night with Dimitri all over again, being aware that she was in pain, but unable to rush in. Another wave of pain washed over my mind and I succumbed to the pull.

Lissa's vision clouded as a fist landed heavily on her head. She screamed and lashed out randomly, praying to surprise them. She heard her attacker grunt as the hand connected with their stomach. Their fist came back and hit her harder. She had been fighting for so long now – and her arms were getting heavy. I could feel helplessness set in. She tried to call Ella, but no one came. Sobs built up as she collapsed. The dark figure loomed up above her head.

"No…" she croaked out. "Rose. Help me." _Rose! Please, come back! I need you. Rose, please. I'm so sorry, please help me_.

It killed me a thousands times that I was not able to help her. That I couldn't murder the thing that was causing her so much pain. I tried my hardest to answer back, to tell her that I was with her.

_Lissa, _I called,_ I'm here. Oh Lissa, keep fighting. I can't get to you in time. I promise that I'm coming back though. I'm gonna come back for you. Please, keep yourself alive until I do._

Hands closed around her neck – she was starting to fade away. Air wasn't making its way to her lungs. _Rose. If you're there, if you can hear me, tell Christian that I love him. And I love you so much, Rose. I'm so sorry. I love you so much_.

I gasped in pain. _I'm here Lissa! I can hear you, I just can't help you. Please keep fighting, just the blackness. Don't go to sleep! Lissa, just keep going, I'll never ever leave you again if you stay alive. I can't live without you_.

The details around her were beginning to dim as the hands tightened. She couldn't see, she couldn't breathe. Her skin was hyperaware as she panted, trying to get oxygen – from anywhere. It was very warm for spring, but the sun wasn't heating her body at all.

_Keep fighting! Don't you dare die on me, Lissa!_

She couldn't see anything, and as she faded I felt part of myself fading. It felt like someone was slowly cutting out most of my heart with a knife, leaving me only enough to live.

_Please Lissa! It hurts too much! I can't live through loss again. YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME._

Heat touched her face. Starting gently and then getting warmer. The hands around her neck slacked but it was as if her lungs had forgotten what they were meant to do. I kept yelling at her in her head, but it was no use, she couldn't hear me.

"Lissa!" a new voice yelled. A voice that she could hear. A voice that was repeating all the things I had been ordering silently. "Lissa! Breathe, Lissa! Come on, don't give up. Just breathe, please!" Warm hands pressed onto her chest, where her heart was weakly thrumming. "I know you're still alive, Lissa, answer me!" Soft lips pressed onto hers, but instead of kissing, they blew air into her lungs. Suddenly, she remembered what she was meant to be doing, and sucked in a deep breath. She rolled over to on side and coughed deeply at the new influx of oxygen. Her vision cleared as blood flowed to her eyes and Christian's anxious face swam into view.

"Christian," she gurgled and relaxed in his arms.

His lips pressed against hers again, but this time it was a kiss.

"Lissa," his voice was deep with relief. "Lissa, never _ever_ do that to me again."

_Or me,_ I added silently.

"I won't," she promised.


	13. Safe In His Arms

**Thanks for your reviews - I hope you like the latest chapter.**

**~Charlotte-LOVE-  
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_Chapter Thirteen  
Safe In His Arms_

After Lissa had woken up, Christian had wasted no time picking her up and carrying her – wedding style – back to the dorms. Strigoi still overran the campus, and their progress was slow as they tried to avoid being noticed. Back in Lissa's room, Christian placed her gently on her bed, before taking his shoes off and sliding in next to her. Lissa rolled onto her side and snuggled up against his chest. Her breathing was fast from her near-death experience, and the unused adrenaline was still pulsing around her system.

"Who are they?" she croaked.

Christian clutched her tighter to his body before answering. "I'm guessing they were the Strigoi army Ella warned you about."

"But she said they would go after the Queen. They just seemed to attack _everyone_. There wasn't a plan there."

"I think that Tatiana being here just made them speed up their attack."

"Why did they come for _us_?" she whispered.

She expected Christian not to know – she expected him to shrug at her question and move on to several theories that were each as unlikely as the next. But instead, he opened his mouth and then hesitated.

"Do you know?" Liss gasped.

He nodded. "Well, I think I do." He searched her eyes, as if trying to find something in her.

Lissa shifted uncomfortably. "What are you staring at."

"Is Rose with you?"

"I don't know. I can never feel her. It's a possibility. She would have felt was I was feeling earlier, and I hope she would have to come and check what was wrong." _Of course I would, Lissa._ It was a pity she couldn't hear me. "Does she have something to do with the Stri-"

A battle cry sounded from below her window and Lissa quickly shut her mouth. They both listened to the sound of an intense fight, suddenly cut off with a scream and a quick laugh. Lissa's heart started pounding again, and Christian slowly got off her bed and tried to cross the room quietly. Before he could get even halfway, a face appeared at the window, a fist smashed the glass and a body crawled through. Christian immediately threw fire – which the figure dodged easily – and then ran to put himself between Lissa and the attacker. The person – a man – just laughed and darted towards Christian as quick as lightening, punching him in the side of the head. As he fell, Lissa screamed and tried to get to the door, but even as she turned, the man was in front of her. My heart twisted as he spoke.

"Hello Princess," Dimitri said strangely polite, seeing as he had just knocked Christian out.

Bless Lissa, she did try. Even though she wouldn't have been able to beat Dimitri when he was a Dhampir, she did swing a punch at him. He deflected it easily, catching her first with one hand and clutching her other arm hard. Lissa squirmed in his grip and screamed. It was useless, everyone outside was too busy with their own battles.

"Please let me go," she sobbed.

Dimitri didn't lessen his grip and he glanced around her room. "Where's Rose? She's not fighting, and she's not with you."

"She's not here," Lissa gasped. Tears leaked from her eyes – he was gripping her arms _really_ hard. "I don't know where she is."

"What?"

"I don't know where she is, she just left one day. Nobody on campus knows where she went. Or when she's coming back."

"Liar." Dimitri's voice was still calm and polite. "Rose would never leave you."

"She has. She did it before as well – the first time. I didn't know where she went that time either. Please, let me go."

Instead of doing as she asked, Dimitri just tightened his grip. "Tell. Me. Where. Rose. Is."

_Rocky mountains_, I answered. Neither of them could hear me, but it felt good to do my bit for Lissa. There wasn't much else really to do. _Planning on getting back as soon as possible. How long do you reckon it would take to get from Idaho to Montana? I'm quite close…_

Neither of the replied to me. What a surprise.

"I _really_ don't know! Please," Lissa begged, "let me go!"

Dimitri scanned the room once more and then sighed. His gaze returned to Lissa, but instead of the scary calm, he looked thoughtful – like he was trying to figure out a hard crossword clue. Lissa bit her lip and her gaze darted to the too-still Christian lying on the floor. She quickly returned to stare at Dimitri when he talked.

"What would Rose do if I killed you?"

Her stomach dropped to the floor and Lissa had to swallow a few times before she could answer.

When she finally regained the ability to speak, she whispered, "She would make it her job to find you. And kill you." Honesty was the best policy in Lissa's head.

"And if I left you alive? But promised to come back and kill you next time?"

"She would come back to protect me."

"Hmm…" If Dimitri had a beard, he would be stroking it. He wasn't, because he doesn't have a beard and both of his hands are being used to hold Lissa, but it was one of those moments when people with beards would stroke them.

While Lissa and Dimitri were sidetracked with thoughts, I took my time to examine his face closely. I started with his eyes. Somehow, I had hoped that it had all been sorted out without me, and that the red ring had disappeared, leaving me with my Dimitri. But nope, the red shadow on his eyes was still there. His face still had none of the warmth – in fact, I would say that it looked colder than when I last saw it. He was still gorgeous, of course, but not in the beautiful, handsome way he had been before. Everything about him screamed danger, and he had that bad-boy allure to him. Despite wanting to kill him, I couldn't help but be attracted to him.

Without warning, he dropped Lissa. Her legs buckled and she collapsed onto the ground, automatically flinching as if Dimitri was going to strike her. Admittedly, it was 50:50 whether she would live.

"I'm going to leave you alive for now, Princess. But next time, you will be dead. And so will Roza."

His dramatic last sentence was accompanied by an impressive leap out of the window he had entered by. Lissa couldn't do anything because of the shock and relief. She couldn't move except to curl her legs up to her body and collapse into a fetal position. Her energy levels had plummeted, and right now – in the middle of a fierce battle with the Strigoi, and with her boyfriend unconscious a few steps away from her – the only thing that Lissa wanted to do was sleep. Sleep sounded like an excellent idea. Her eyes fluttered closed and she lost consciousness for a few minutes. I hovered, worried about what was going on. She didn't _feel_ dead, but then I couldn't be sure.

However Christian's groan jerked her out of sleep. With a moan of her own, she staggered to her feet and moved to Christian's side. His eyes were open, but he was obviously dazed.

"Lissa," he mumbled. "You're alright."

Lissa nodded, blinking away the tears. Today had been too much for her to handle.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"What happened?" Christian reached up to touch Lissa's face. It would have been romantic but, thankfully, he seemed just to be checking that she was alright. I didn't like it when Lissa went goo-goo with Christian.

"He's going to kill me," Lissa whispered. "But he wants me to bring Rose back, so he's going to leave me alive for now."

Christian narrowed his eyes and pulled Lissa closely to chest. Lissa wrapped her shivering arms around him and let out a shaking breath. Her eyes closed and she tried desperately to hold back her tears. No sounds drifted in from the still-open window except the bright, cheerful chirping of a bird. It was still sunny, and the light shone through Lissa's eyelids. Christian pulled away and held her at arms length, squeezing her shoulders gently.

"He won't. I'm going to make sure that he doesn't."

"I'm not worried about me." Her lie was convincing, however I knew she was bluffing about that. She was almost paralysed with fear for herself, but there was something else. "I'm worried for Rose. I mean, Dimitri's looking for her, and I know that she escaped him once, but she might not be able to do it again. If she comes back, she'll just be walking into a trap."

"It's a hardly a trap if she knows about it. Rose'll be fine. She managed to escape him once – she'll do it again."

Lissa submitted herself back to Christian's arms and sighed. From outside, sounds of people talking in subdued whispers came. The attack was over, and they were left to tidy up after the deaths of Dhampirs, Moroi and Strigoi alike. In their momentary realm of peace, Lissa and Christian sat on the carpet floor, safe in each others arms. The fear and the danger left for a moment, giving them time to be together, like how it was meant to be. They didn't speak, didn't dare break the calm that they had found, instead they just watched the other one. Searching for anything that might make them unhappy again, but nothing came up.

"I love you," he murmured.

"I love you too."

And then it got too lovey-dovey for me to stay in her head. Doru and Dashkov were both chatting to each other like two housewives catching up on the neighbourhood gossip. I had been lying on the cold ground, and I could feel my hair sticking up in all directions. My mouth was full of blood – coming from a puncture in my lip, I must have done that in Lissa's head. I swallowed, trying to get the metallic taste out of my mouth. I, personally, could not see the Moroi and Strigoi obsession with blood.

"Urgleblarsh…" I rolled over onto my side and spat out the dry blood. I grimaced at the aftertaste. "Urgh."

The brothers looked at me in synchronisation. They both raised their eyebrows at me spitting blood onto the floor. Remembering that this was, technically, Doru's home, I sat up and stopped. There was a small red patch on the rock floor however, and I shrugged.

"Er…Sorry about that." I shuffled away from the mess to make me look less guilty, and towards my companions.

Victor ignored my momentary lapse of decorum. "What just happened. You were acting normal and then you just sort of… fell over."

"Lissa was having problems but it's all over now. Though I think that I need to go home."

That _is the most sensible thing that I've said for a long time._


	14. Homeward Bound

**And Chapter 15 will be extra quick because it's already almost done! Please review, I love reading them.  
~Charlotte-LOVE-**

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_Chapter Fourteen  
Homeward Bound_

The sun was setting, touching the snow covered peaks of the Rockies. Doru was inside, sleeping, but Dashkov had braved the last of the sun to say goodbye. I had only stayed for a few hours, explaining what had happened at the Academy and then I got ready to leave.

"Goodbye Rose," Dashkov said, covering his eyes from the sun. "I doubt we'll see each other again."

"I'm going to make it my duty to keep at least fifty miles between us, actually." We fell into an awkward silence. "So where are you going to go? You have the whole world at your fingertips…"

"I think I'm going to stay here, with Robert. I don't fancy a life of living on my own. And I think that he's the only one who doesn't hate me."

"He will after spending a day with you," I joked. "He'll be searching for ways to kill you before the night is out, I promise."

We both laughed. The more I spent time with him, the more it felt like the old times – when I just thought of him as a nice old Royal.

"Well, goodbye, I guess."

Victor reached and caught my arm as I turned to leave. "Before you go, Rose, I need to say thanks. For doing this, and for freeing me, for letting me stay. For not killing me."

He pulled me into an unexpected hug and then waved me away. I blinked a couple of times, but resisted the urge to pinch myself. Did he really do that? I practically ran down the side of the mountain as he walked back into the cave with his brother. Victor's sudden affection had left me lost for words – it felt weird for him not to hate me. Actually, it felt weird for me not to hate him, my mind was so geared for doing that, that not hating him was a weird feeling.

I considered the distance I had yet to travel and sighed. Of course, I was no longer being held down by Dashkov, but getting to a road would take another day. I grimaced a set off at a steady jog, trying to keep my balance on the loose rocks that covered the mountain side.

While running I dipped in out of Lissa's mind – just to catch up with what had happened. I couldn't stay for long, otherwise I got sucked in a forgot that I was busy running down a mountain, but I caught catches of her day.

_Lissa, Christian and Eddie were sitting together in the corner of the cafeteria. All the novices had been called in straight after the battle, for a headcount. There was a solemn feeling in the air as the teenagers realised that they wouldn't be seeing some of their friends again. Lissa looked up at the sound of sobbing. Camille sat with the other popular Royals, however Carly was not among them._

I leapt over a rock in my path. Camille and Carly had always been inseparable bitches. If you needed gossip to be spread, you could count on those two to get in circulating around the academy in a heartbeat. Camille without Carly didn't make any sense. I ran for a little while before ducking back into Lissa's head.

_Christian was half-standing, half-sitting, scanning the cafeteria. His eyes fell on a group of Moroi from the lower school. He searched through them frantically with his eyes and then sat down defeated._

"_What is it?" Lissa whispered to him._

"_I can't see Jill anywhere."_

_Lissa jumped as she remembered the young hanger-on. Her heart fell as she tried to find her in the masses, but there were no brown haired, green eyed fourteen year olds._

"_Oh no." Lissa didn't realise she had spoke the two syllables until she heard them with her own ears._

Oh crap, I just ran through a puddle. I stopped to shake my soaked trousers, then carried on jogging. I wonder if anyone I _hate_ actually died? All the people who lost their lives just appear to be people who annoy me – or in Jill's case – I actually like. Why couldn't Jesse or Ralph die?

I didn't go back into Lissa's head for a while. I didn't fancy running through another puddle and getting wet again. Eventually, however, boredom got to me and I dipped back in.

_Every single student was crowded round a list that had been placed on one of the tables. The final list of the dead. Lissa and Christian had hung back, allowing everyone else to crush in and then disperse. The list was long – covering two pages. Lissa and I had almost identical reactions to every one._

_Ryan, Dean, Carly… We'd never been close, but after spending all your school life with them, you got to know them._

_Seeing Alberta's – Guardian Petrov's – name on the list almost gave me a heart attack. She had always been such a badass._

_Ms. Kirova was also there. Lissa almost cried. She had grown up with all the these people, they had been secondary parents to her._

_She couldn't even finish the list, Lissa turned to Christian and buried her head in his shoulder, tears running down her cheeks. He ran a hand down her smooth hair in a preoccupied way as he read the rest of the rest._

"_Lissa," he said quietly. "Look at the last name."_

_She raised her head to look, blinking away the tears. The last name had been decorated, and unlike the others, had a sentence accompanying it._

_Her Royal Highness _Tatiana Ishakov_. May our great Queen rest in peace._

_Above the Queen's goodbye, there was a name that both Lissa and Christian had missed. When Lissa's eyes travelled to it, new tears sprang up._

"_Ella."_

I blinked away my own tears. For both Lissa and I, the academy had been our second parents and my first home. All the people in it were part of our lives, and sure, in my training I was prepared for loss, but nothing on this scale. They never expected you to lose half of your family in one go.

_Log_, I told myself, and managed to jump it before I tripped. I was getting tired, my calf muscles burning, but I kept jogging forward. I would need stamina if I was planning to get back to the Academy and then stay alive.

The moon was low in the sky. By visiting Lissa, it felt like I had only been running through the mountainous terrain for a few hours, even though a whole day had passed. I realised with a jolt, that this was the last mountain before the road. Days past quickly while you're in mourning, I noted.

_Inside the Academy's hall, every vampire was gathered. They sat in squiggly rows, cross-legged like four year olds. At the front, some Moroi were speaking about Tatiana. Lissa sat with Christian on one side, gripping his hand tightly, and Adrian on the other. He was rubbing her shoulder in a comforting way as tears dripped down her cheeks._

_After the Moroi speakers, anyone could stand up and say a word. A few more Moroi – mainly Royals – talked about Tatiana, and then a few more about Moroi who had died. Jill's mom said a few words about her daughter, which just made Lissa cry even more. And then the guardians stood up to say their goodbyes to the dead._

I was going to stay and listen to what people said, but the sight of a road through my own eyes stopped me. I blinked in shock as I stared, and then I realised that the sun had already risen and it was day time.

And then I realised that I hadn't a clue how I was going to get back to Montana. Sure, walking across a few mountains was that bad – but across a whole state? That was a little too much for me. I pursed my lips, and then jumped back as a car whizzed passed me.

I had only hitch-hiked once. It was on mine and Lissa's two year 'vacation'. It was successful, but we were walking along a highway with cars passing us every ten seconds. On this road, I wasn't so sure, but I didn't have many other choices apart from walking.

So I started. I think it was in the right direction – I _think_ that the taxi Dashkov and I took to here came the other way. If I was wrong, I was going to be really annoyed. I didn't dare go back to Lissa, I would be really annoyed with myself if I missed a car.

I was right in thinking that the road I was walking along was driven on very often. From sunrise to noon – all of five cars drove past. I stuck my thumb out for each one, but all of the whooshed past me. But I was in luck, the sixth car that I stuck my thumb out stopped. It was a small, blue rust bucket that looked like it was about to explode at any minute. The girl in the passenger seat rolled down her window and gestured me over. I walked slowly, trying to assess whether there was any room for me in this car. There were three people in the front – a driver, and two wedged in shotgun – and in the three seats in the back, there appeared to be about seven bodies. They all looked around the same age as me.

"Where're you heading?" The girl called to me.

"Montana," I replied.

She smiled, revealing bright pink bubble gum. "Same here, hop in."

I blinked. What? Hop into the boot?

"Um… Where?" I re-evaluated the situation. Yep. Still no space for me.

The girl seemed to notice this, but then she brightened up and threw the her door open. She popped the bubble gum and pushed her partner up a bit.

"There's space with me and Cliff. It'll just be a bit of a squish."

I almost said no, but then I thought about the frequency of cars on this road and sighed. The girl and Cliff both wiggled up a bit more, giving me a whole three inches of butt space. Jeez guys, no need to be overly generous. The girl grabbed my arm and hauled me in next to her, before leaning over me and slamming the door. The guy driving (who definitely got the best deal, seeing as he had a whole seat to himself) started the car again.

"Hi there!" the girl said. It would have been _really_ impolite to ignore her – seeing that our faces were so close we were almost kissing and I was half on the seat and half on her lap. "I'm Lydia – but everyone calls me Lynnie."

"I'm Rose. Nice to meet you."

"Cool! Why're you going to Montana? We're going on a road trip – you know, a break from school. Our college thinks that we're all _ill_. At least that's what we told them when we left. I'm missing out on a month of school – I'm an Art Major. What about you? You are in college, aren't you? Either that or you look really young, because you only look about seventeen. Where do you go? We're from California originally, and I can't wait to go back south, these cold, wet mountains are driving me mad."

I didn't think I was ever going to be allowed to speak, so I just contented myself to listening to her inane babble.


	15. Hitchhiking

**I know that I said it wouldn't take long, but I completely forgot that I hadn't updated here. So I just went on with writing and then got back from school as was like 'oh yeah! I need to do that before they all lose interest and run away from me'. So here you go!  
~Charlotte-LOVE-**

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_Chapter Fifteen  
Hitchhiking_

"And you should have _seen_ the sharks, Rose. Well, there was only one. Actually, if you count the other movies in that series, there are more like five or something, but they all die at the end on the movie, so there isn't any time when there is more than one. I honestly wet myself when it leapt out of the water. But we were seeing it in 3D, so it was even more terrifying. And the cinema had all these other effects, like things that make it feel like you were surrounded by water. It was _so cool_. Terrifying, but awesome. Oh yeah! I almost forgot to say, this other time that we went to…"

"Disney Land," Jennifer – one of the girls in the back seat – supplied.

"Yeah, that. The other time we went, but it wasn't the same one. Wait…what's the capital of France?"

"Paris," Shaun – Jennifer's boyfriend – answered.

"Ha! I knew that, I suck at geography. Once, when I was in high school, I got _nothing_ on a test. I couldn't even remember the capital of the USA. I knew that London was the capital of a country, but I couldn't remember which country. My teacher was really unhappy with me. But he was really nice. I think that his name was Mr Mackler, but I can't remember. I mean, it was only a few years ago, but my minds blotted it out."

We were now well past Idaho – about half way across Montana – and Lynnie had not stopped talking. After the brief introduction of herself, I got the history of every single person in the car (retold by Lynnie) and then her history, starting with her family, then her friends, then her holidays, ending with her experiences in Disney Land. But with the way that girl got sidetracked, it took half an hour.

"Where in Montana are you headed?" Jonathon – the driver – asked.

They were all heading to the edge of Montana, to the end counties. However, as I found out when Lynnie was telling me their exact directions – they were going right past the Academy.

"Just drop me off in Blaine," I said. "According to Lynnie you're going to go right past where I want to go."

"Cool! I knew something that I would say wouldn't be useless. Although, it has happened before. Once, in college – in a lecture with Mr Thon, Lina, your teacher isn't he? – and he asked me a question that meant a really long answer. So I was like, I know this answer. And it took me about five minutes to explain it all, but it was all right and Mr Thon was extremely impressed. He was all, 'I never knew a student who could talk for five minute straight without a need to pause'. And I said, 'yeah it's part of my charming personality'. And that was all useful because afterwards, Vicki came up and told me that she finally understood it, even though it had been explained to her every year since she was sixteen. So it was all good." And Lynnie was off again, on an obscure train of thought.

"Blaine, huh?" Jonathon asked over Lynnie's constant stream of noise. She didn't seem to care that we were talking over her.

"Yep. Visiting family."

Jonathon nodded thoughtfully and turned onto a highway that I knew so well. Lissa and I had travelled down it many times on our way to Missoula for shopping.

"Good luck with that," Lynnie said. "I hate visiting my family. I have this aunt, or second aunt, or she might be my cousin. Actually, thinking about it, she might be my niece. Yeah, I think that's it – I'm _her_ aunt. She's like four, so she wouldn't be my aunt. And I hate her. I don't say it in front of anyone, of course, but she's so annoying. She screams constantly. About anything. Spoilt brat. And there was this girl, okay? In my old class, I think she died in a car accident, I went to her funeral-"

"-This is it!" I almost screamed as I recognised the large conifers concealing the driveway to the Academy. To all the humans in the car, of course, it would just look like a forest because of the wards. Maybe that was why they were all looking at me as it I was mad.

"You sure? It looks sort of…empty."

"They're weird people, my family," I said with a knowing smile. "Thanks for the lift. Bye everyone. Bye Lynnie."

Lynnie hugged me hard and then unlatched the door. "Bye Rose!" I turned to go, and then she said, "Oh no! Wait! Here!" She grabbed a piece of scrap paper and a pen out of the glove box and scrawled something down. "Keep in touch!"

Cliff shut the door and they all waved as Jonathon drove off. I smiled down at the hastily scrawled phone number and email before scrunching it up and shoving it deep into my jean pocket. While I turned, I realised just how much of a mess I was, caked in mud from the hike, deep shadows under my eyes from too many hours missed sleep, limping because of the cramps in my legs from being seated of Lynnie's lap for several hours.

"Don't complain, Rose, you'll be fighting Strigoi soon." For some unfathomable reason, that thought didn't cheer me up as I made my way down the concealed drive through the woods and towards the Academy.


	16. Reunion

**I felt so bad about giving you such a long wait between updates that I decided to put everything on hold until I could post this. And I know that I always promise quick updates and then forget about them - well this time, it's all different! Because straight after this chapter, I am posting 17 as well.**

**I know that everyone asks for these: but _please_ take a minute to review. Even if it's just 'nice chapter' or a three word answer, I would love to read it. Okay, rant over. Happy reading.**

**~Charlotte-LOVE-**

**P.S. Chapter Eighteen might be a while in coming, because I have a. homework and b. a chapter of Valentine's Day to finish writing.**

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_Chapter Sixteen  
Reunion_

The assembly must have gone on for a long time, because most vampires were outside when I arrived through the front gates. There were no guards – the likelihood being that they had been kille. Moroi were gathered in the shade, still too keyed up to go to bed, however they were gradually heading back inside.

People who I didn't even recognise were staring and pointing at me – some with open hatred. I returned their fierce gazes with a puzzled expression. Had I done something bad? I lost interest in them though, as a girl with platinum hair caught my eye. She was facing away from me, her arms wrapped around Christians waist as he buried his head in her hair. Next to them, Adrian stood, facing me. I smiled shyly at him, and he started beaming.

"Lissa," he said, still not taking his eyes off me. Maybe he was worried that I would disappear. "Lissa," he said again. She still didn't look up. "Lissa! Look!"

"What?" Lissa's voice was muffled and she kept her head buried in Christians shirt. Christian looked up and saw me, his face splitting into an equally happy grin.

"Liss, I really would look if I was you," Christian said, coaxing her head up with a finger.

Lissa's eyes were bloodshot, and her silky hair was standing up around her face making her look like a scarecrow. She was usually pale, but her skin was almost luminescent it was so white.

"Rose?" she mouthed. And then shouted, "Rose!"

I ran towards her a proper smile breaking across my face for the first time since I saw her. She hugged me hard as she wrapped her arms tightly around my neck. I hugged her back, feeling happy once again.

"Rose, you came back." Even though Lissa whispered it, everyone could hear. Mainly because as soon as Lissa shouted my name, everyone stopped talking and turned to glare at me. Seriously – what did I do?

I pushed that aside and turn all my attention back to Lissa, "Of course I did. I couldn't leave you alone, undefended while my evil ex-boyfriend was plotting to kill you, could I?"

I thought I heard someone hiss, but I couldn't be sure.

"You saw that? And you came back?"

I shook my head in disbelief. Lissa was unbelievable sometimes. "Of course I saw that. I saw all of what happened. I'm not just going to run off and never check up on you. And I left what I was doing as soon as I saw what had happened."

"How did you _get_ here so fast? It's only been a day, but you've already arrived."

I smiled. "I was in Idaho when it happened Liss. Not much of a drive to get here."

Lissa's smile wavered and her voice dropped and octave. "Why did you leave in the first place? You promised that you'd take me along – and I thought that you might at least _tell_ me."

I shuffled and looked at the ground. "I got cold feet. It was dangerous and I didn't want you to get in trouble."

"I'm not afraid of dying," she said bravely.

I rolled my eyes. "No time for brave words, why is everyone staring at me as if I have brought an infectious disease in?"

"Oh…You must not have seen that part. Basically, I told one person about Dimitri – just _one_, I promise – and now everyone seems to know. I think that they blame you for the Strigoi army."

"That's crap!" I shouted, but then toned it down again. "How does anyone know that? They could have been after the Queen, and Dimitri just decided to tag along for the hell of it."

Christian and Adrian had gravitated towards us and decided that it was the perfect time to intercept before I ripped someone's head off.

"We know that it's not your fault, but that how some Moroi are seeing it. The Guardians don't think so, but then they're all preparing for battle again. Lissa warned them that Dimitri was going to come back."

Dimitri. My emotions flared up to ecstatic again. "Lissa! Oh Lissa!" I reached up to hug her hard again.

"Yes Rose, it's me!" She sounded slightly confused as she patted my back. Understandably, seeing as I had been acting like a normal human all the other times. She pushed me back gently, confusion written on every feature. "Are you alright?"

"Liss! I know how to, now. I know how to do it!"

Christian and Lissa exchanged puzzled glances while Adrian looked as if I was the most entertaining sitcom he had ever seen. I didn't even bother to tell him off for it – Lissa was here, Dimitri was coming back, it was all going to fine.

"Okay. You know what? Let's just, like, go to my room so all the eavesdroppers don't listen to every word."

"Yeah. Okay. Yeah," I said and then started to jog over to the Moroi dorms. I couldn't wait for Lissa to say her goodbyes to Christian and Adrian, so I grabbed her arm and pulled her back to her dorm.

"Okay," Lissa laughed as I shut the door behind us. "What have you found?"

"I know how to cure him Lissa. And it's so easy! It's something that you can do."

Liss stared at me as if I was talking French. "You can cure a Strigoi? I thought you said that that was a rumour."

"Well, it's not. That's where I went, to find the guy who did it first. He's mad, but that's because he's another Spirit user. And…Oh Lissa! It's so easy. You just have to heal him. That's it. Like you did with me."

"Aren't Strigoi dead?"

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean anything. It would be like the time you brought me back. You would be tired, sure, but you would survive. And Dimitri would be a dhampir again; he could be your Guardian with me."

Lissa looked as if I had handed her an ultimatum. "Rose… I can't do that."

I felt as if she had poured a bucket of cold water on me. "What?"

"Rose, if I bring Dimitri back from the 'dead', then I'll give myself a double bond. You saw what it did to Avery – it drove her crazy! I'm really sorry, you are my best friend, but I have a hard enough time dealing with the madness without having a double bond."

"So what? You're just going to make me kill him? Lissa, no matter what that man is I love him! I risked imprisonment to find that out and now that just doesn't matter?" I was being childish and mean, but I didn't care. "You're meant to be my best friend, and I get that it was mean for me to leave you behind after I promised, but _this_ is how you get revenge? I don't care what you do to me – but don't do this."

"Rose," she tried to interrupt.

"Don't bother, Lissa. I get it. I'm not worth it. You have other things to be doing with our time like making out with your boyfriend and being all high and mighty and everything."

I turned to leave, but she caught my hand. "Rose! Listen to me! _I _can't heal Dimitri because I'm already bonded to you. But someone else can."

Before I worked it out, his name floated across the bond. _Adrian could. If you asked very nicely_.

"You are joking aren't you? Adrian can barely heal a plant."

"Adrian's been practising. While you were away he did quite well."

"Yes, Lissa. _With a plant_. Has he tried vampires yet?"

"No, but it's him or nobody."

"Would he agree?"

Lissa fell silent. "If you asked him really nicely he might."

I groaned and fell back onto the bed. Stupid double bonds. "Can you go do it?"

"No, he wouldn't do it for me. If _you _ask him really nicely, he might."

Fun, fun, fun. My life was just a bundle of laughs sometimes. And Adrian was no doubt going to have an interesting response to this.


	17. Working On Adrian

_Chapter Seventeen_  
_Working on Adrian_

"Ah, the Queen of my heart as returned to my bosom!" Adrian cried in a delighted voice when I entered. Lissa, standing behind me, pushed me gently into his room and I turned to give her a look that said _this will not under any circumstances work while he is being a prat._ Although it was probably a bit too long to be conveyed in a single glance.

"Well, you two have fun, I guess," Lissa said as the door slammed shut.

Adrian watched me flop down onto one of his expensive chairs and then grinned. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"I need a favour."

"I still have your essay."

"What?" When did I write an essay? And why did I give it to Adrian? "Which essay?"

"The one on why I would be a good candidate for a boyfriend. But you ran away before I could give it to you. Was it that much of a repellent?"

_Oh, that essay_. "No, sorry. It just completely slipped my mind. I was too keyed up to stay in one place for a long time."

"It's okay, no need to be so guilty. Would you like it now?"

Crap. This would not make my conversation any easier. "Um…"

Adrian rolled his eyes. "It's alright, before you make such a huge decision that will probably change the course of your life because that's what happens to Rose Hathaway, I accidentally spilled some…coffee on it and it's unreadable now."

"Is coffee your code word for wine?"

"Beer."

"I didn't know you drank beer."

"I drink anything, sweetheart."

"Oh yeah."

"So what's you favour?"

I bit my lip – we were back on difficult subjects. I felt sort of bad asking Adrian this, seeing as he was the one who wanted to go out with me, and here I was requesting him to bring back the guy I loved. But, then again, it was the guy I loved and I didn't mind so much about hurting people to get him back. I hoped that Adrian would understand that and not throw a hissy fit about it.

"Well-"

"Good way to start a serious matter. I compliment you on your speaking skills."

He was one of the most annoying people I know. Second only to Christian. "Thank you. Now shut up and don't say anything. So, you know that I heard this rumour last time I away about curing a Strigoi – making them alive again. I knew who had said that they managed to change them back – but I didn't know where he was. I left to go find out." Adrian nodded to let me know that we were on the same page. "Well, I found him and he told me how to cure them. Because they're dead but their heart is still beating, it's like being only a second dead. So it's possible to heal them, and bring them back to life."

"Rose," Adrian groaned. "You seriously aren't asking me what I think you're asking me. Are you?"

I sighed and shrugged. "Lissa can't do it – otherwise she would be double bonded. I don't know any other Spirit user who I could call over."

"What about the guy who claimed to heal the Strigoi in the first place."

"He did it by accident – he doesn't know how to do it again. You, on the other hand, _you_ know how to heal. Lissa's taught you and Lissa is the number one healer around here."

"No. Way."

"Adrian! Please."

"Rose," he said exasperatedly, "I don't know whether you've noticed, but I am madly in love with you. I wrote you a fricking ten page essay on why we would make a good couple! And I _never_ do work. I. Love. You. And sadly, for me, there is this other guy that you are madly, head over heels in love with. And I feel desperately sorry that he's gone because it makes you sad, but can't you understand why I might not want him to come back? Let alone have a bond with him?"

"Adrian, I will get down on my knees and _beg_. Please! I will do anything for you if you try. I just want you to try. Please." My voice had an annoying whining quality to it that made me want to hit myself.

He groaned and his head rolled back. Then, he straightened up and looked at me evilly. "Okay, Miss Hathaway. I'll do your crazy stunt and risk being bonded to your Russian hunk for the rest of my life-"

I rushed towards him and flung my arms around him before he could get another word in.

"Thank you, Adrian, _thank you_."

He gently pushed me back and held me at arms reach. "But you have to agree that while your boyfriend is still running around trying to kill us, you'll be my girlfriend. For however long that is."

Now, I'm not a slut, no matter how hard Mia tried persuade everyone that I was. But I couldn't deny that I liked the whole 'having a boyfriend' thing and I didn't like it when I was single for any length of time. But lots of people are like that. So, going out with Adrian instead of moping about a lost love, was more preferable that singleness.

I nodded at him emphatically. "Yes. Of course I will."

"Kissing and everything?"

"What kind of couple would we be if we didn't make out?"

He withdrew his restraining hands from my shoulders and let me hug him tightly again. This time, his arms snaked around my waist and held me closer to him.

His voice was muffled by my hair when he spoke. "You know, I've wanted to do this since the first time I saw you."

"The first time I saw you I wanted to punch you because you were in my way and you wouldn't move."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Hasn't changed much then."

I smiled and shook my head. "Not really, no."


	18. Preparations

**Is hasn't been too long since my last chapter(s) update. Ha! I knew I could do it. Enjoy and review (pleasy?)  
~Charlotte-LOVE-**

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_Chapter Eighteen_  
_Preparations_

"No!" Adrian groaned as the leaves withered in front of our eyes. Lissa and I were observing from one side of the room as Adrian struggled to heal the plant. I closed my eyes and let my head fall back against the wall.

I knew that he _could _do it, because I had seen him with Lissa. However when I was in the room with him, he was completely useless.

"Just try again," Lissa was saying soothingly to him.

"I can't concentrate!" Adrian argued. "It's no use."

I hit my head on the wall again, harder. When we didn't talk about Dimitri or healing or Spirit, Adrian and I got on like a house on fire. If Dimitri had never existed, we would have made an excellent couple. But then, there were the times when something was mention that got us both wound up. At the moment it was healing.

I had come back two weeks ago, but still Adrian was having trouble healing a bush. Lissa kept reassuring both of us that it would be okay – as soon as he had got used to me being in the room, it would all be fine. But it was taking him a hell of a long time to stop being distracted by me.

Slowly, I stood up and stretched, motioning to the door. "Do you want me to leave so that you can concentrate."

Lissa nodded gratefully, so did Adrian, but he seemed upset. I walked over and pecked him on the lips.

"Don't worry – you'll get it eventually," I comforted before heading out the door.

Despite the deaths from the last battle, the Academy was teeming with people. Mainly guardians, seeing as all the Moroi had packed up and headed out soon after the Strigoi had left, but a few remained. Most of the novices in my year had stayed because they were ready to fight. And, of course, some Moroi had arrived.

"Tasha!" I called to the woman with the raven-black hair standing at the end of the corridor.

Tasha turned, her scars momentarily shining in the light before dimming again. Her face lit up in a smile and she wandered down towards me. I grinned as he hugged me in welcome.

"Hey Rose, you're back then?"

Christian had obviously told her that I had disappeared. Twice.

"Yep, I'm here in all my glory," I announced loudly causing nearly all the surrounding people to glare at me.

I may have been welcomed back with open arms by my close friends, but the story wasn't the same with the rest of the academy. As soon as they knew that Dimitri had led the Strigoi to find me, and that he was coming back to find me, they blamed everything on me. If I was being honest, it did make sense as none of this would have happened if I didn't exist. But at the same time, most of the Strigoi didn't care whether I was dead or alive – they just wanted blood, death and destruction in the Moroi world.

Tasha also noticed the instant stares and link arms with me, pulling us out of the busy corridor and into the emptier grounds. It was cold, and the frost was just forming on the cold ground. The clouds covered the moon, making the night seem even darker.

"At least we have a warning this time," Tasha said.

I stopped staring at the moon and looked at Tasha. "Huh?"

"About the Strigoi. We know that they're coming again and we've prepared ourselves."

I glanced around the field. It was completely deserted. "Yeah, but we've lost half our guardians and all of Moroi – not that they did much good."

Tasha held out her hands like the shad the solutions to all my problems. "Which is why I'm here. The Academy – and Court – decided that this was emergency enough to let Moroi join in the fight. Me and my band of trainees are all here to help."

"Trainees?"

"It's what you call people who're being trained, Rose. Offensive magic is hard."

I nodded. I already knew that, but I hadn't really understood what she was talking about. I guess the Queen-less state of the vampires meant that changes were coming in thick and fast. I couldn't even celebrate the rigid structure of the Moroi changing, I had other things to focus on.

Tasha and I turned at the sound of a door slamming behind us. Through the windows of the Academy, we watched as Adrian stormed off, his face set in angry lines. Lissa left a little later on her own, but she was greeted by Christian halfway down the corridor. Sighing, I realised that my not being there hadn't made things any easier for Adrian. I would have to go find in later and try to get in to cheer up.

"Problems with your love life?" Tasha brought me out of my reverie.

"You have _no_ idea," I mumbled. "I think that once I turned twenty, I'm going to give my life to someone else. I can go and live in a nice cottage in the middle of nowhere. And own twenty cats who are the only company I ever get."

"Somehow, I can only imagine you tearing the house to pieces because you got bored," she said with a smile that took the bite of her words.

I laughed and shrugged. It was true – I would never be able to live in a boring place. I would just get too… bored.

Tasha and I chatted for a little longer about trivial things – how she was, how I was, if I was looking forward to graduation – but Adrian was foremost in my mind, so I was finding it hard to get into the conversation. After five minutes or so, we said goodbye and walked off in opposite directions.

Adrian was sulking. He was were I expected to find him – in his room, with a glass of beer/wine/vodka/bleach in his hand. When I entered, he was just sat on one of his comfy chairs, staring at the liquid.

"I dread to know what the inside of your body looks like," I said as I he lit up a cigarette.

"Just as beautiful as my exterior, I suppose." Even his sarcasm had less of an attitude to it. He didn't give me a chance to ask 'what's up?', he just launched straight into it. "I'm sorry, Rose, you're dating me for no reason. The Strigoi are turning up in four days according to all the guardians and I can't even heal a _plant_. What the hell is wrong with me? And then you're going out with me because I'm making you, while the guy you really love is coming closer to killing you every night, and I just spend all of my time whining to you. And when he arrives, either your dying or he's dying. Because he isn't getting any better if I have to heal him."

"Are you done bitching?"

He raised and eyebrow at me, and looked as if he was about to protest to my use of language, but then he snapped his mouth shut and pursed his lips.

"Good! Now listen to me." I crossed the room and straddled his lap. "Even if you couldn't heal Dimitri, I would still be doing this. It feels right, Adrian. Not in the same way – but in a nice way. And while Dimitri is dead, I plan to live my life as normally as I can. _This_," I said, pressing my palms against his chest gently. "This, Adrian, is normal." My hands slid us his chest, coming to rest on his shoulders. "I don't care what happens when the Strigoi comes – I don't care if you manage to turn him into a monkey. You tried. You've been practising all day, every day since I got back. It's not as if you're slacking off." My face moved closer, my lips hovering over his. "Dimitri or no Dimitri, I love you Adrian. Maybe not as much as you always wanted me to, maybe not in the right way, but I do love you." My hands locked more securely around his neck while I continued. "And what we're doing now is right. And it's what we should be doing." Finally, my lips came to rest on his. I felt him starting to loosen up, and his arms slipped around my waist pulling me close to him.

Adrian's mouth warm and moist. He tasted slightly of cloves and smoke – from the cigarettes – but in a nice, warm way. Adrian was safe. Adrian was home.

He pulled away, but I went with him, determined to keep my mouth cemented onto his. When he let go of my waist, I reached back to lock his arms back around me. I wasn't ready to finish kissing just yet. I had other plans.

"Rose," he mumbled against me, his hands once again moved from my hips to my stomach. He pushed me gently just as I had pushed him earlier. "Rose. Stop."

His words were useless, and I just clung to him harder. "No. I don't…" I trailed off as I got lost in his lips again. He seemed to give in for a minute – the pressure he was putting on my stomach dissipated for a minute while we both went back to kissing.

"No." He tried to push me away, and this time succeeded in separating our lips. "As much as I love kissing you, there is someone knocking on the door."

Sure enough, when my attention wasn't fully absorbed with kissing, I could hear someone knocking on the door hard. The corridor outside was also busy with Moroi trudging up and down, something that I had been completely oblivious to.

"Oh," I said. "Oh. Okay."

I clambered, ungracefully, out of Adrian's lap and sat down on his bed instead. His bed was unforgivably soft – as soon as this mess was over, I was going to complain to the Academy about providing the novices with substandard beds. This was _heaven_.

My name jerked my out of my bed-head. "Oh…hey Rose."

I looked up and glared at Christian. "You do come at really inconvenient times," I scolded.

"Sorry! I thought you were still with Tasha, I wouldn't have come if I had known what you two were up to behind closed doors."

"Whatever." Now I knew it was Christian and not a dorm guard or something, I lay back on Adrian's bed. Maybe I could fit in a little nap – I hadn't realised that I was tired. It must have been the kissing. Or the emotions. Or the fact I went to sleep at four last night.

"Bye Rose!" Christian yelled as he slammed the door – jerking me out of my quick nap. I rubbed my eyes to get rid of any tiredness that was left as I sat up.

Adrian smiled as he sat down next to me. "When was the last time you slept?"

"Same time as you. Expect I went to bed later." I yawned, just managing to cover my mouth with my hand so Adrian didn't get a cloud of my breath blown at his face.

He grinned and leaned in for a kiss once I was done yawning. I pulled away first, sort of curious about what Christian had wanted.

Adrian knew what I was going to ask before I said a word. "Strigoi are coming in two days. Latest prediction by the guardians. Lissa wanted me to know that I would be fine – no matter how disheartened I am."

"_Two_ days? Damn." Two days until I face Dimitri? That seemed like too little time – and yet too much. I desperately wanted to see him again, because I loved him. But I didn't want to think about what would happen if Doru had just been a crazy man. About what would happen if I had to kill him.

"It'll be okay, Rose, I promise."

"Are you psychic or something, now?"

Adrian winked and grinned. "It's just part of being brilliant."

I laughed and kissed him again. "It suits you."

But even as I smiled and joked until we had forgotten about the unpleasant subjects, I felt the butterflies in stomach beat their wings even faster as the deadline approached.


	19. The Healing

_Chapter Nineteen_

_The Healing_

We were prepared. We had a warning. We had weapons. We had a line of about two hundred guardians and fighting Moroi. Senior Guardians and Tasha strolled up and down the line – keeping order and checking that everyone knew the plan. A lot of the Moroi who didn't want to fight left as the pressure grew.

"You ready?" I asked Adrian.

He looked and me. His face was a pale green and I could see the nervous sweat on his forehead. He licked his lips and glanced at the forest that the Strigoi would come through.

"Bring it on."

Lissa and Christian were standing together, their limbs wrapped around each other in a complicated embrace. I didn't need to Lissa's face to know that she was scared – I could feel the raw fear pulsing through our bond. Christian just looked impatient, like the Strigoi were taking too long to come. He was probably just looking forward to the Strigoi slaying.

"What about you?" Adrian said, bringing me back to the real world. "You looking forward to it?"

I shrugged. "Nope. Would prefer to be on a different planet right now."

My foot twitched with the adrenaline that was surging through my blood. Everything seemed much louder and brighter than normal, and I would twitch at any small movement. Tasha sidled up to stand in front of me and Adrian. My eyes flickered to her stern face and back to the woods. It couldn't be long now.

"You two all set?" she asked.

"Yep," we both chorused.

She smiled at us, and then softly said, "Good luck." Before moving onto the next people. Adrian grasped my hand and gave it a quick squeeze before letting it go. My leg jiggled restlessly and a breeze stirred the end of my ponytail.

Everyone's eyes moved straight to the woods as the sound of crunching leaves reached our ears. Shapes separated themselves from the shadows of the dark wood – blood red eyes and haunting smiles. People we knew when they were still alive, and people who had been gone for hundreds of years. They grinned at the reception, though made no move to attack.

There wasn't a sound and the air was full of tension – as each sided waited for something. The Strigoi obviously knew what, but we had no idea. Two advancing figures made it obvious. Lissa let out a mixture of a gasp and a sob as the two of them reached the fringe of the wood.

Ella's pale features didn't look right on her – and the red eyes just made her look terrifying. Guilt trailed through from Lissa into me, but I could barely pay attention to either. Dimtri.

They way his lips pulled up into a feral smile when he saw me reminded me how much he had changed since I left him last. In Russia – there were moment when he _could_ have been my Dimitri. Now he was just a shell with none of the right characteristics. But the right face. And the right body.

"Roza." His voice was amplified by the adrenaline. "You came back to protect the Princess."

"And to kill you, don't forget that part. It's a very important bit of it."

The vampires around us began sizing up the opponents, shifting their weight and tensing their muscles. I simply moved my feet apart to make me more stable. Dimitri didn't move an inch.

"I doubt you'll be killing me, Roza. You proved in Russia that you can't. No matter how many times you tried – you just couldn't."

I glared at him – it was as if we were back in the gym. As if he was telling me off for being too confident and pay attention to the details, like he always did. And like I always did, I got annoyed.

"If you remember, I _did_ manage to stick a stake in your heart. It was you're fault that I was hanging off a bridge and my aim wasn't that precise."

A moan from my right distracted me momentarily. Lissa's feelings refused remained to silent any longer.

"Ella," she cried.

Ella turned her focused red eyes on Lissa, and she smiled with all her teeth. Breaking the neat lines that had formed, Ella stalked forward, her eyes attached to Lissa's face. The tension broke and the rest of the Strigoi surged forward. Flashes of light appeared at the sides of my vision were Moroi started using their offensive magic.

I reached behind me to grab Adrian's hand. "Stay close," I whispered. "I'll tell you when."

I just hoped he agreed, because I didn't have time to check. Dimitri was stalking towards me. His eyes held death, and only death. I didn't think that there was going to be much mercy in this fight. I got a better hold of my stake – the one that I had first 'killed' Dimitri with.

"Now, Roza, what's between you and my heart?" he asked as if it was a lesson while leaping forward, trying to catch me by surprise.

I sidestepped him and moved backwards and to the side, conscious of Adrian following my footsteps.

"The sternum and ribs are in the way." My lips titled up into a smile as I repeated words from a long time ago.

I jabbed out with a sidekick, but he caught my leg and twisted it – sending me flying into the air. I smacked the ground and leapt to my feet, narrowly avoiding Dimitri's fist. I ducked again as his leg came sweeping over to me at head height, and then flew towards his defenceless stomach, hoping to land a few punches. He grabbed my ponytail and tore the hair band out. I swore and skipped back.

My hair started the fall in front of my eyes, and I was too busy kicking and punching to tuck it behind my ears.

"Your hair's in the way," he noted. "Not only are you blocking your peripheral vision, you're running the risk of letting your enemy get a handhold. Like this," he said and with a movement almost too quick for my eye to catch he grabbed hold of my shoulder and chucked me to the ground.

I cried out as I felt the ground cut into my skin, small streams of blood soaking into my ripped top. His eyes quickly flicked to the blood that was so appetizing to him, and I took my chance.

With a hard sidekick to his hip, I sent him crashing to the ground. A Moroi wielding hands of fire elbowed past me, and Dimitri took his chance to stand up and prepare himself again. I swore. I could have done it then.

Another Strigoi and Moroi battle diverted Dimitri and me. I recognised Ella's brown hair and Christian's fire hands before I had to pay attention to the guy about to break my neck.

"Piss _off_," I muttered as I tried to avoid him but ended up slamming into the back of a Guardian.

"Don't swear, Roza," he scolded as we found a clear space to fight.

I got in a lucky blow and punched him hard in the face.

"I'm just expressing myself," I gasped as I tried to catch my breath.

I jumped at him, swinging the stake in the air, hoping to wound him enough to get him down. But he just kicked me aside and tried to wind his hands around my neck.

And then a saviour came down from heaven. Or, more accurately, Christian accidentally sent a stream of fire in the wrong direction and part of it caught Dimitri who whirled around to put it out. I took my chance and slammed him to the ground.

With all my weight I pinned him, and got a hand loose. I didn't stick my stake in hard enough to kill him, but as the silver buried itself into his chest, he stopped moving. His breaths stopped coming and his eyelids fluttered closed. I didn't trust this 'death', though, and – still pinning him with all my strength – shouted to Adrian.

"Now!"

He rushed forward, his hands already buzzing with healing magic. I was surprised that he hadn't been in any fights with the Strigoi seeing as he hadn't had anyone to defend him and Spirit is hardly the most offensive magic.

I couldn't see what was happening to Dimitri, because I could feel all the traces of stress leave his muscles. My hands stopped gripping as tightly and I watched closely, for any traces of life.

After five minutes of stillness, Adrian sat back, his hands leaving Dimitri's skin for the first time. He was panting heavily and his breaths sounded strained. I listened to him, but my eyes were still on Dimitri. He hadn't moved, but he hadn't tried to kill me yet either. It was a mixture of positive and negative.

"There was so much dark in him. Like the outside of your aura, Rose, except all through his body," Adrian was saying. "I think I managed to get all the darkness. I think at least. I can't be sure. There was just so much of it."

Adrian's words weren't do anything to comfort me. In fact, I was beginning to worry that he was dead. But then I felt his hand twitch next to me leg. I pushed him to the ground again – terrified that when he opened his eyes they would still have the red rings around them, and I would actually have to kill him.

But then he opened his eyes. His wonderful, brown eyes. Even as I watched, blood seemed to flow back into his face, making it darken to the tanned skin I loved.

"Rose?" he asked. He sounded confused as he looked around at all the fighting Strigoi. "What happened?"

But I couldn't talk. Because the proof that Dimitri was here. With me. In my arms was too much for me. With relieved expletives pouring out of my mouth, I bent to kiss his lips. His Dhampir lips. _Dimitri's_ lips.


	20. AN

Hey guys! I know that you were all hoping for a chapter, and I'm sorry that this is just a crap author's note.

_**There will be another chapter!**_I'm busy writing it right now. But the problem is, is that it's not going very well. So I hope you'll forgive me about the length of time you might have to wait. Today at school, an idea came to me that I'm going to try and write, but I'm not sure whether it will work.

The next chapter will be the _**last**_ chapter so I want to make it really good.

Again, sorry about the wait.

~Charlotte-LOVE-


	21. My Happily Ever After

**This is my last chapter. :'( I have to say that it's been fun writing this story! And it was managed to sort-of squish my desire for Spirit Bound. If I hadn't been writing this I think I may have gone crazy. Although, I think that it will be a while until I write another Vampire Academy Fan Fiction. I'm a bit tired of Rose, to be perfectly honest. And I seem to just get busier every day.**

**Lots of love to ANYONE who read/reviewed this story. I adore you guys so much. :D**

**~Charlotte-LOVE-**

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_Chapter Twenty  
My Happily Ever After_

"Omm…"

"Rose! Do it properly!"

"I _am_. Haven't you ever seen anyone meditate before? They do this – with the hands and everything."

"No, Rose, they don't. That's what they do on TV. Get comfortable, you're going to be sitting like that for a while. And stop omm-ing. It doesn't help."

"Okay."

I felt Dimitri walk over and sit in front of my. He guided my hands down to rest comfortably on my knees, but he didn't let go of me.

"Match my breathing," he said. I listened closely to the rise and fall of his chest, although I could feel every time he exhaled because it would cause my hair to tickle my face.

We sat in silence for a minute, just listening to each other's breathing. I opened my eyes once – to check whether he had his eyes closed. When I ascertained that he had, I shut mine again.

"Om…"

He let go of my wrists and I opened my eyes. He smiling at me and shaking his head slightly. Even though I had graduated last year, he still acted as if he were my mentor sometimes.

"I don't really get why you told me to meditate. It was always going to fail."

He patted my head and hauled me to my feet. "I wanted to see what would happen if you went calm for a while. But I didn't think about the fact that you can't go calm."

Acting depressed, I looked down at the floor and pushed my lower lip into a pout. "I can do calm! You were distracting me with your talking and breathing and… you know, just being there."

"Do you want me to go away?"

I rolled my eyes and hit his shoulder lightly. "No, I just want to stop with the meditating and practicing for a while. Adrian will be leaving soon, which means you'll have to go with him and we've barely spent any time _together_."

Dimitri smiled. "Rose, we've spent the whole day together."

"Yeah, but for the first half Adrian was with us, and then Lissa and Christian. And the rest of the time we've been practicing and meditating. That doesn't really count as time together."

Smiling, he stepped closer to me and brushed a strand of hair out of my face. I wrapped my arms around his waist and brushed my lips against his collarbone.

"You are so demanding, Roza."

I wanted to reply with one of many witty responses, however I was afraid that he would stop what he was doing and laugh at me. And right now, I didn't want to be a badass, I just wanted Dimitri to properly kiss me.

His lips gently probed mine as my fingers entangled themselves in Dimitri's hair. On its own accord, my leg rose and wrapped itself around his hip and his tongue caught mine. I felt his hands run up my back to rest at the nape of my neck.

"Whoa!" Christian's voice startled me, but not enough to make me pull away from Dimitri. "I did _not_ mean to walk in on that."

"Piss off, Christian," I mumbled into Dimitri's lips.

I didn't hear that door shut, so I removed my mouth from Dimitri's and turned to glare at Lissa's fiancée.

"What?"

"Lissa needs to talk to you."

I sighed and unhitched my leg from Dimitri's hip. As we untangled ourselves, I grumbled about being interrupted. Lissa never meant to – but her duties as the Queen's advisor meant that she need guardian accompaniment to a lot of places. And as Dimitri had to stay with Adrian (who didn't ever really go to Court) we spent a lot of time separated.

Lissa was in her dorm room. Even though Tatiana died, she still made good on her promise to let Lissa go to a good University. Although it did mean a lot of long haul flights to assist Her Majesty, Priscilla Voda in her queenly duties.

"Yo, Liss," I said and collapsed onto her bed. "Watcha want?"

She flicked the TV off and rearranged herself on the bed. Christian came and perched on the armchair. She grinned secretively, and made a big show of making me wait to find out her glorious secret. It didn't work, of course, because I could effectively read her mind.

"You passed!" I screamed and leapt up to hug her. Lissa looked vaguely put out that I knew before she told me, but then she smiled and hugged me back. It wasn't a big deal – I always knew that Lissa would pass her second year at college with flying colours.

She let go of me and bounced excitedly on the bed. "I know! I can't believe it! And we get to go to Court in a week – so we can see Mia and I can tell her. And Adrian's coming with us this time! Which means Dimitri can as well. And Tasha will be there, so she can tell us what she's learned."

I laughed, and then remember Dimitri – who was probably still waiting in my room, just in case I wasn't being whisked of to court in an hour. I hugged her one last time and said hurriedly, "Got to go. Have stuff to… You know. Do."

Understand dawned on Lissa's face and Chrisian raised his eyebrows.

"Have fun," she said and hugged me again.

"Remember protection!" Christian shouted. I gave him the finger and rushed out of my room.

Maybe if I hadn't been running, I would have noticed Adrian coming out of his room. But, as it was, my hurry meant that I ran straight into him with such force that I knocked him several feet back. He smiled as he clung to the wall for support.

"Hey Rose, it's nice to see you too." He grinned and winked.

I shrugged. "Sorry about that – I wasn't paying attention."

"You mind was elsewhere?" He caught on and, like Christian, raised an eyebrow.

I slapped his shoulder. "Unlike you, I am capable to think of more than one thing. When I ran into you, I had just figured out the cure for cancer and I was about to go and stop world hunger. Every minute that you talk to me, you're killing several hundred people."

Grinning, he moved slightly to the side, giving me enough room to pass.

"Yeah, yeah. Have fun ending world hunger," he called down the corridor as I ran away.

As I expected, Dimitri was still sitting on my bed, his eyes were roaming restlessly around the room, although his gaze focused on me as I shut the door. He smiled, and opened his arms in a welcoming gesture. Quickly, I slipped into his arms again.

"Sorry about that, Lissa wanted to tell me that she passed," I murmured into his chest.

His reply was muttered into my hair. "I understand. Besides, she's your Moroi, you have to do what she wants."

"Mmm." I was bored already of talking about duty – I had more important things on my mind. "Let's do something else."

"Wha-" Dimitri tried to reply, before my mouth silenced his.

Carefully, he tipped backwards on the bed, pulling me down to lie on top him. I closed my eyes and smiled inwardly. This was the best life.


End file.
